This last platelet donation started off on a delicate note as the nurse in charge hit--or sideswiped, at least--a nerve on the way in. She and her assistant were joking about it being that kind of day and how she was doing that to everyone. I told her, in that case, I wouldn't take it personally but then they admitted they'd only had one other donor in before me so I told her I'd take it semi-personally.
My previous donation had started very well and we were about halfway through when the nurse had to leave to take care of a patient upstairs (the donations are done at the local hospital and the product is used almost immediately) and cursed me by saying, "Everything's going along fine. You haven't beeped at all." Whereupon, as soon as she was gone, I began beeping all over the place. (Fortunately, in addition to an assistant to monitor the situation, they give me a pointy stick which I can use to poke the touch screen of the apheresis machine with my free hand to restart it whenever the beeps shut it down.)
This session was just the opposite. I beeped almost continuously from the start until about two thirds of the way through when suddenly everything cleared up and flowed through to the end.
I declined the offer of a meal ticket in the hospital canteen "They have prime rib, today," and a T-shirt silk screened with a Hawaiian surfing scene. I did take a second chocolate chip cookie for my troubles.
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