Saturday 24 January 2009 - Home & Hot

We left hospital at 9.30 and walked out to a wall of heat, maybe we should turn around and stay. On the way home we stopped to have breakfast at McDonalds where the mobile blood bank was. I hadn't given blood in over 10 years, but thought now was a good time to start. We asked the nurse could Drew see what was happening and explained that he had leukaemia and had a transfusion the night before. The nurse was lovely and explained to Drew how they test the blood and how it goes into a special bag with an agent to stop it hardening. It then separates into plasma, platelets and haemoglobin. The rate of blood is also timed and Drew was impressed that my 470ml only took 6 minutes and 28 seconds to come out - probably had something to do with the 35C temperature.