Oopsie!

Went in for my platelet donation today. The "new" phlebotomist (the same one I had last time, new to this location, not to the hospital system or the profession) had me again and, again, she did an excellent job picking a vein and maintaining the draw without me making the machine beep all over the place. But . . ..

She pressed the wrong button.

She pressed the wrong button when she started my session and, instead of donating the usual unit of platelets, I ended up giving two units of platelets and one of whole blood.

It's not a problem per se (my platelet count was up and my iron is good) it's just that it wasn't the plan and nobody noticed until I was almost finished when I looked at the screen on the apheresis machine and noticed the column indicating platelets processed was maxed out (as it should be when done) yet she was telling me I had ten more minutes to go. Then I noticed another column, which had never been active during any other session of mine, rapidly counting up milliliters of . . . something.

The bags were obscured by the screen itself so I didn't notice them until staff realized what had happened but, yes, there were indeed three of them and they were full. Two white and one red, all from the same vineyard.

The good news is: I didn't beep even once, a record for me. The bad news is: I'm tired and my fingertips are wrinkly as if I just got out of a long bath.

I think I deserved the T-shirt this time.

I'm going to take a nap, now.