Logan – Big John’s Platelets?

Update

The long and boring process continues of Logan’s blood counts dropping to zero, and then rebuilding themselves. When his red blood counts drop to zero, Logan has no immune system, and his blood cannot deliver the oxygen around the body as it needs. And without platelets, he is prone to bruising and is unable to clot should he bleed. So, Logan stays in the hospital room in as safe an environment as there can be, and those who visit are very careful when out in the world. Logan is happy and playing and sleeping a bit better for Amanda and AJ. In the picture Logan is just waking up from a nap, so he looks a bit drowsy.

Whole Blood & Platelets

Now is the time when Logan and other cancer patients need whole blood transfusions and platelet transfusions. COVID has seriously reduced the ability of donors to provide these life-giving gifts. Also, the blood donation centers are struggling to fully staff the centers. My phlebotomist mentioned that she was supposed to get off earlier in the afternoon but was unable to leave because she was trained on the platelet machine and others were not. So much has supply diminished that Logan needed platelets on Friday, and there were none to give. Thankfully Logan received platelets on Saturday evening.

It is frustrating to me that patients such as Logan cannot receive what they need when they need it. It is up to us, all of us healthy and able to donate, to do so. I know that when I wrote about this in a previous blog post, some readers acted and scheduled a donation. Thank you for that. Writing the obvious, there is only one place that blood and platelet donations originate, and that is from fellow humans.

My Platelets?

I donated platelets on Friday. It is possible that my O+ platelets ended up in Logan’s O+ body. Even more possible when you consider that platelets are only viable for 5 days after donation – they had to go somewhere, soon and nearby. That possibility is just heartwarming to me and makes me grateful to have been a donor for decades. But truth be told, most of my donations have been whole blood. So much easier and quicker to donate. A whole blood donation takes less than 10 minutes while a platelet donation was just under two hours. Yep, two hours.

Now personally motivated, I am scheduled to donate platelets again on January 28 as you may donate every 14 days. This is much more often that the every-56-days for a whole blood donation. So, with a 2-hour donation time every 14 days I know that I am not selling the idea of platelet donation very well. Need motivation? Look at the picture of Logan and Mimi.

Thank you all for your prayers and your support. Both desperately needed and lovingly appreciated.