Giving Blood

Almost monthly, I head to the Red Cross to give blood. A little over a year ago, I started giving via a new procedure using a machine they call a TRIMA. I don't know what is stands for but the idea is that they take out blood, send it through a centrifuge, take out what they want, and put back what they don't. I arrived at the Red Cross at 2:00 and went through the usual selection process. They ask all kinds of questions. I usually eliminate a lot of them which begin "Have you ever had sex..." and "Are you a female...". It takes about an hour for all that processing to finish and they finally hooked me up. The cool thing about the TRIMA machine is that you can watch movies while it is happening. It takes a little longer than old-fashioned giving of whole blood. I got hooked up at 3:00 and finally was able to stand up and stretch at 5:00. But, it feels good to know that, in these two hours, they are taking from my body everything that they need to help people live longer.