Donated blood today

That brings it up to 4.5 American gallons (~3.75 UK gallons). I've been deferred twice in the past 3 weeks, but I finally managed to get my iron levels up high enough. Must have been the maple and brown sugar Cream of Wheat.Can you tell the clip art was free?

What's the square root of hemoglobin?

In honor of Square Root Day, I donated blood today.

My blog is good for something, because I looked up the last time I donated. July 17, 2008. I'm up to 35 donations or 4.375 gallons, now. It will be YEARS before I hit 5 at this rate.

I would donate far more frequently if they wouldn't keep deferring me because they say I don't have enough iron. Although, no, they didn't defer me all seven months. I've managed to donate 35 times in spite of low hematocrit and other things. Other things such as: (Kia will remember this, and thanks Mr Farty for reminding me) The second or third time I donated, the needle hurt a lot. Then my mouth went very, very dry and I started feeling queasy. I could feel the blood draining out of my body.

"Does anyone ever throw up while doing this?"

Every phlebotomist in the place was suddenly looming over me holding a waste paper basket. I leaned over and threw up, managing to miss every single one. The needle was immediately whipped out of my arm, my chair was tipped back so my head was lower than my feet, and a cold compress placed on my head while I croaked, "I'm sorry." over and over. They wouldn't let me finish donating, even though I asked....

I've made sure I'm completely hydrated before going in ever since.

My father was the one who got me into it, and took me to the Indiana Blood Center the first few times about 13 years ago. He's donated gallons and gallons over the years, but he is now ineligible. His cumulative visits to England between 1980 and 1999 added up to more than three months, so his blood isn't considered "safe" anymore. Those darn mad cows over there. (Photo poached from Mr Farty)

It's definitely worth doing, though. There is never enough blood. Depending on the phlebotomist, most of the time the needle doesn't really hurt at all. And don't let one or two bad experiences stop you. It took three before my mother finally gave up!

Blood donation

Donated blood today. I'll do anything to get out of going to the gym.

That only brings it up to 4.25 (American) gallons over about the last 10 years. I get deferred about two out of three times due to low hematocrit.
Update: Never celebrate anything with two Long Island Iced Teas within 26 hours of donating....ow, my head.

Bacteria? See ya later alligator!

The 235th meeting of the American Chemical Society sounded interesting. One of the presentations was a group of biochemists from Louisiana reporting their studies on the antimicrobial activity of alligator blood. I got this from a Science Daily report: Alligator Blood May Put The Bite On Antibiotic-resistant Infections,* and a National Geographic article: Alligator Blood May Lead to Powerful New Antibiotics.

Apparently alligators and crocodiles have an unusually strong immune system that can fight off fungi, viruses, and bacteria including methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus. This is likely an evolutionary adaption to frequent injuries due to such things as territorial disputes, and (often) living in swampy, microorganism infested environments.

These scientists separated out the white blood cells and extracted the active proteins from the alligator white blood cells. They found that of the 23 strains of bacteria they tested, alligator serum killed...23 of them. The same tests using human blood serum killed 8.

They are hoping that alligator blood products might be available for human use as pills or topical ointments within seven to ten years.

Is anyone else envisioning a future 50 or so years hence, where crocodilians are dying from infections they never used to get, due to human misuse induced alligator blood resistant bacteria?