pantsfarm

I tried to donate [tag]platelets[/tag] at the hospitals here last Friday. It ended up being the first time I’ve ever been rejected from donating. I had made an appointment, for the first time ever, on their recommendation from a week before when I had gone in to donate platelets.

There is a blood shortage, as there is apparently always a [tag]blood shortage[/tag], and in an effort to draw people, it seems that the [tag]Blood Donation[/tag] Center here has started some sort of prize-system campaign to get people to be motivated to donate more often. If you go in some number of times (4 or 5) and give blood or platelets at each, by the end of March, you get a bunch of random free stuff. A little rubber band a la livestrong for your first visit, I think some little drawstring bag for the second, a t-shirt (unfortunately only in one size, XL) for the third, and on your fourth visit you give them your address and size, and get a free hoodie. They are actually pretty nice hoodies that they’re printing on, and from a distance, it looks more less like a University of Chicago hoodie with a little bit of extra text around it that is hard to read.

I have no idea how they are promoting this blood drive. I heard about it because I went in randomly to donate. On the same day, I was told that they had mailed me a postcard about the program, however when I finally did get the postcard almost a week later, it was rather quite short on the details and if they hadn’t told me about it beforehand, I probably would have tossed it in the trash as junk without a second thought.

So anyway, back to the story: I went in, pretty much exactly the same as the week before, though this time with an appointment, and filled out the forms and so forth. This time, though, it was a different woman than the one’s who had interviewed me and whatever before. This time, also for the first time, I thought to type up a record of my travel destinations, durations and dates, rather than sitting there struggling to remember it all.

So we’re going through the interview, and she’s telling me how it’s great I’m giving blood and all that. I was surprised to find out that my body temperature apparently runs a bit lower than usual, something around like 85-96.8 F (35-36 C), but this is ok, as the only body-temperature condition for rejection is being too high.

But then we get to the travel part, and I hand over my sheet of paper. Basically, it looks exactly like this:

Travel:

Monopoli, Italy: 1 Month, July, 1998
Bangalore, India: 4 Months, Jan-Apr, 2002
Beijing, China: 3 Weeks, Dec, 2002
Beijing, China: 3 Weeks, Dec, 2003
Beijing, China: 3 Months, Jun-Aug, 2004
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico: 9 Days, Dec, 2004
Beijing, China: 3 Weeks, Dec, 2005
Shanghai, China: 3 Days, Dec, 2005

She takes my sheet, and goes and checks it against the manual of places you are allowed to go and still donate. But this time she comes back and she’s like, “uhh take a look at this” and directs me to a bit of text about Shanghai. Moreover, she notes that apparently it wasn’t recorded that I went to Shanghai at my last visit, even though I’m pretty sure I did say that I went to Shanghai for a weekend in my last trip.

Shanghai is included in a list of provinces that one can not go to and give blood, however, it is followed by a bunch of caveats that would allow somebody to give blood. One of them is if you go during the winter. Then, winter, for the region of “25 to 33 degrees North”, is given as something like January-April. I should note that my trip to Shanghai (31¬∞10′ N) was something like December 28th. But, alas, no go. Another one is that if one goes only to the “tourist areas” it is not a risk. I was in the City going to museums. That’s pretty much all I did there. Whatever. I think there was another caveat that would have allowed me to give, but I forget and it’s not important. Anyway, if you go there, you’re at risk for Malaria, and it’s a 1 year deferral for any sort of blood donation.

So I was pretty upset, because, like, it sucks that I can’t give blood for a year, even though, I’m pretty sure I can, because, I stayed in the cities, and it was fucking cold as hell and the middle of Winter. I was upset because I won’t be able to get my free hoodie. But the one thing that just really really annoyed me throughout this whole encounter, is that this woman who was interviewing me kept saying “providence” instead of “province” when explaining to me that there is apparently no distinction made between the city of Shanghai and the surrounding rural area.

But I couldn’t ever bring myself to interrupt and be like “AAHHH stop saying ‘PROVIDENCE’ the word is ‘PROVINCE’! Providence is a fucking city in Rhode Island!” Maybe I should have, maybe it would have been a good thing for everybody if she was disabused of this word confusion, but, I thought I would regret feeling like an asshole.

So they sent me away, with a food court certificate in hand as a consolation for the trying ordeal of sitting around for half an hour waiting for her to check an atlas, check the manuals, call her boss, and so forth. They had my contact info on record, so, they said they’d get back to me if they heard that I was actually OK. I got a message while I was still out, later that day, but when I tried to call back, I got voicemail, so, I figured I’d just wait until Monday to call back and see what’s up. I still really want that hoodie.