Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.
Random mutterings
Got home last night and saw the odometer on the car reading 0x1F018 miles exactly. Still runs quite well for a 12 year old car. Still haven’t replaced the side view mirror, but the struts will be getting replaced this weekend with the help of a friend of mine. The ride has been pretty mushy the past few years, and now the car is bottoming out on things. It’s definitely time to replace them. Replacing them is an experience I’m looking forward to.
I wonder how many XPs it will be.
You knew this was coming. Orientation of the x-ray is as if you were holding it landscape looking at the screen. Click the image to embiggenate.
Easily visible is the battery in the center (which actually appears to be two batteries) and several main boards. The pair of oval things on the right are the speakers. At the top the cameras and flash LED are visible. The board between the batteries I’m guessing is the charging circuitry for the batteries. On the left side are the microSD slot, HDMI port and the volume buttons. Above the left battery, the big square thing is probably the Tegra 3 chip.
Compare the x-ray to the tear down pictures over at AnandTech.
I’ve been a platelet donor for a year now. It sounds a little intimidating when you read about it. Two big needles stuck in your arm, your blood going into this big machine next to you and then fed back into you through the other arm. Didn’t exactly sound appealing to me either, even though I’ve been a whole blood donor for almost 25 years now.
Really though, aside from the extra needle stick and the kind of loud machine next to you, donating platelets is super simple. Here are a few tips that I found help make my donations go smoothly. Maybe they’ll help you if you’re going to give platelet donation a try.
The donation process can take anywhere from 80-120 minutes depending on how much blood the machine thinks it needs to filter through. Schedule your appointment during a morning or afternoon when you don’t have anything else going on. It also makes a good and very legitimate excuse to do absolutely nothing for a few hours.
You’ll be lying around for a while. Might as well be comfy. The last thing you want is to be all fidgety because your clothes are bunching up or riding up on you.
If you’re well hydrated, whoever is sticking you will have an easier time hitting the vein. Since this has to be done twice, you want them to get each stick the first time. Also it helps your blood flow easier.
The donor center will have a collection of movies to browse through, but you may not find anything you want to watch. Bring a movie from your collection (something that’s at least 90 minutes long) and you won’t have to worry about it. Don’t bother with a book. You won’t be able to move or bend your arms to read it anyway. That goes for e-book readers too. Unless you can read with your e-book device at arm’s length, don’t bother. If you just don’t have anything, you can try to nap, but the staff will keep waking you up periodically to check on you and make sure everything is ok.
After the screening, go to the bathroom, even if you don’t feel like you need to. In addition to most of your blood (minus some platelets and plasma), a saline and citrate (anti-coagulant) solution is fed back into you. It’s going to make you want to pee. If your bladder isn’t fully empty when you start, you’re going to feel like you’re about to explode by the time you’re finished (unless you’re one of those people with a mega-capacity bladder). Make it easy on yourself and pee before you plop down on that chair.
Like with regular whole blood donation, you’ll be squeezing with the arm blood is coming out of. If you don’t squeeze enough, the machine will bong at you or start making funny noises. You don’t want the machine to bong at you. It makes the staff think something is wrong. You don’t want to alarm the staff.
When they offer you the blanket, take it. The room temp may feel fine at the beginning but after about 10 minutes you’re going to start feeling like the AC in the donor center was cranked all the way down. Your blood cools down a bit (not much, but enough) going through the machine and all that tubing before going back into your arm. Cold blood = cold you. Take the blanket. It’s electric. It will keep you warm and comfy.
The staff like you to hang out for a little bit after your donation, in case something unexpected happens. If you feel faint-y afterwards, better it happen there than when you’re in the car heading home. There are snacks and drinks available so enjoy some.
If you’re considering becoming a platelet donor, hopefully these tips will help make it a better experience for you.
I think if I was going to get a tattoo, I would be tempted to get something like this:
Being the introvert that I am, my circle of friends is pretty small. I usually don’t meet too many people that I find compelling enough to come out of my shell to interact with willingly. I also don’t go out much, so actually getting to see my friends is usually a treat. So when the opportunity comes up to visit with one of them, like when she’s starting a new job, well heck I’m there.
Made the trek up to Summerville (which for me, is a bit of a drive) to see her in action on the first day of the new job. Always good to see friends, even if it is just in spurts. But hey, there was decent food, a good Guinness and other people to hang out with. A pretty good time.