Most Epic Blood Donation Fail Ever

So I  like to donate platelets. It takes about 90 minutes, and the collection center by me gives you a DVD player to sit with during and watch any movie (that they provide) that you want. Snacks galore, free. All you have to do is give them your arm and squeeze a squeegee every 10 seconds.

So here I am, trying to donate. The nurse I had that stuck me was new (i think) and didn't get a great vein. The machine kept beeping and they couldn't get it to flow (I also have weird veins). They called over their more expert nurses to try and get it to work and no one could. So, they said the words I thought they would never say- "We can't use you today."  I thought.....aren't they desperate for blood? Didn't they- CALL ME- Asking if I can *please* donate my blood type? And now they're giving up?

I asked them, well- "Can't we try the other arm?"

Nurse: "No."

Me: "Why not?"

Nurse: "because we can't."

Me: "Okay. Well can I still try and donate whole blood, then?"

Nurse: "No."

Me: "Why not?"

Nurse: "because its our policy. We tried you once already today we can't keep trying."

Me: "Okay. Fine...."


So I closed my nifty DVD player, and off I went.

Nurse: "Oh, but m'am- we still ask that you sit in our little snack area- being that we did take some blood out of you."

Me: "-_-"  (facial expression)



So if you ever have donated blood, you know that the snack area is usually composed of elderly volunteers that like to talk your ear off and get you snacks. You are given a slip after you donate that marks the time you finish, and the time you can leave- So they can make sure nothing happens to you. They still gave me the full time to sit and wait, even though I donated an 1/8 of the regular donation. But the little elderlies don't know this, nor did I feel like explaining it so I could ditch early.


Volunteer: "What can I get you to drink?"

Me: "Oh, nothing- I brought ProPel to drink from home."

Volunteer: "Oh. Well I'm supposed to offer you something.....Soda? Chocolate Milk? Coffee?"

Now, I can't drink any of those, being that I'm allergic to everything. So I take a look at their fridge, their contents open for everyone to see because it had a clear door, like a vending machine.

Me: "Um.....Okay.....Can I have some orange juice then?"

Volunteer: "Oh, no. We're not allowed to give out the orange juice."

Now, here I thought she was kidding- being that she was already giving me a hard time about picking a beverage out. But she wasn't.

Me: "Um...?"

Volunteer: "Its a new policy they made the other day. See, it says so right up there (in fine print), that they did a study out in TimBuckToo that says orange juice after blood donations causes upset stomach.


THis is where Volunteer #2 steps in: "Well, if we can't offer it then why is it visible? I think if it should be visible then I can't possibly say no. Thats a tease. We should give it away. We can't throw it away."

Volunteer #1 (says to me): "Do you want to take home the orange juice?"

Me: "Um..."

Volunteer #2: "You can't ask her if she wants the orange juice after you just said she couldn't have it!"

Here pipes in another prisoner waiting at the table, "Um....I had the orange juice From Volunteer #2, and my stomach is fine."

Me: "Yeah, actually I barely got to donate- So I think I'll be fine."

Volunteer: "Okay fine, but I'm giving you a little. And if you get a stomach ache, I warned you."

Me: "Got it, thanks."

So here is where I pull out my allergen free cookies from home to munch on. I bring these because I can never usually eat the junk food they offer to replenish sugar levels after donating.

Volunteer: "Oh, you brought your own cookies?"

Me: ".....yes."


Volunteer: "Oh. Are they sugar free?"

Me: "No. Dairy free."

Volunteer #2: "oH, are you a diabetic?! I am too."

Me: "um....No. The cookies have plenty of sugar I'm sure. I am not a diabetic. They have no milk...because I am lactose intolerant.

Volunteer: "Oh.....my cousin's aunt's brother's friend is lactose intolerant. He has a terrible time with it."

Me: "Yeah......."


Volunteer #2:  "Oh!!!! We have these cookies over here that are GLUTEN-FREE! Do you want THEM?!"

Me: "Um, no thank you. I can eat gluten."




And that is how you make friends.





 ~WNB


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Unbelievable

Well, I survived my first facebook-free day went rather well!

I am having a hard time deciding what is harder, when withdrawing from an addiction: The very first day, or the days to come after?

If you think about a drug addiction, your first day might not be so bad when withdrawing. You still have a little in your system and you start to notice effects, but its not until the 2nd or 3rd day until you really start having serious physical and emotional effects.

This morning I woke up and I kid you not, my first thought was--Facebook. Check facebook. I always check Facebook in the morning. But last night I deleted the app on my phone (I can always get it back), and I logged out on my computer...so it wasn't up for me to see in the morning.

Overall, the day went well though. I thought about it a lot. I wanted to see if I had notifications. What other people were up to on FB. I have been talking to some special certain people a lot lately on FB, through chat, status comments and what not- And its weird not having that daily contact...

First upsetting challenge arose when I went to a special event tonight (it was so lovely!) and of course, my friends took tonsss of pictures. I always love to see how they came out, and as always, I can expect to see myself tagged that night or the next day. I want so badly to check in on FB to see these pictures, not only to see if I look horrid and can untag, but just also because I like to see them. But, I shall see them in a week, they will still be there.

One week. Thats my goal. I think a lot is going to happen in one week... but, Day 1: Completed.

As for updates on the rest of my life, the event tonight was so lovely. I received a nursing scholarship in the beginning of the year, and tonight was a chance to meet our donors and say thank you, and whatnot. Well, my college went all out. It was catered, open bar, the president (of our school) came and spoke, and we got pictures with our dean of our separate schools within the school. Yay! Yay my college did something nice for us! And also, on a sidenote, this morning we came to class and we had a day long full of "outcomes testing" (they see how smart we are now as opposed to sophomore year of nursing). The projected time we had to do this was 9-2, right through lunch (blech). But to our suprise, when we arrived there was a lovely table full of muffins, bagels, juice, coffee and tea! How nice! :)

And then, during the middle of testing, our ceiling in the hallway starting gushing out water (I kid you not, it was a waterfall). Except, it wasn't water.......................................................................................................................................................................................it was pee.  Some plumbing pipe completely burst, and yes, pee was all over our floor. Lots and lots of pee.

It was so funny to see how many of my fellow nursing students wanted to gag or throw up, or were constantly complaining, or wanted to go see the damage, and I'm sitting here thinking, "Guys....were kind of used to pee, aren't we?"  *sigh*  People just make such a big deal of things.


however, TOMORROW IS MY LAST CLASS EVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IS THIS REAL LIFE????

Its gonna be EPIC.  I hope. and....WEIRD.


Health update: I officially do NOT have Celiac Disease! Woot! So I can officially eat gluten products without a guilty conscience and thinking I am killing myself, or just my gut at least. I have been genetically tested, and I do not have the gene.

I have been feeling 97% better lately, too. Last week I thought I was dying (literally) and it almost came down to another ER trip...twice. It came down to the point where I was really glad to be going to WORK because I knew I'd be safe in a hospital. Instead of calling out, like I so wanted to do- I thought, "Well, if I collapse at home, the ambulance will take forever to get here, and no one will know I'm even here dying. But If I collapse at work, I will be in the ER within like...three minutes."  So, I went to work.

But, thanks to a heavy dose of Prilosec, Culturelle (probiotic), Vitamin B12 (A lot!), Vitamin D ( alot), and D-Ribose (energy supplement), all prescribed by my new holistic practitioner, I am feeling so totally back to normal now. Which is funny because "feeling good" doesn't feel "normal" as I am so used to my normal being nauseated. I still have my tiny occasional bouts of nausea, but nothing that green tea can't fix. Also, my energy level is completely back up to par! I don't have to take naps (as many!) anymore! I don't have this constant exhaustion in my head anymore! I don't spend every waking second thinking about the next time I can go back to sleep anymore!

yayayayayayaaaaaaaaa I feel better! Can you tell based on how my writing changes? You can sense my awakeness, can't you?? Problem is, It's 11:38.

I think thats all I can update you on. One. More. Class. Then, packing til my arms fall off, then moving out!! Ah! What!!!!!!

Goodnight, little earthlings. Thanks for reading my crazy crazy random stories and updates!

~WNB

So I'm Not a Basket Case

Appointment with the Holistic Practitioner went very well!

- She's testing an 88 food sensitivity panel to see what my body is reacting too- YAY!

- She is testing my thyroid for suspected hypothyroidism

- She is doing a complete metabolic panel to test my nutrients & hormones and all that cool stuff.

- She is testing (the right way) for Celiac disease because she highly suspects that to be the culprit of the majority of my problems....

..which means I would return to a Gluten-Free diet, pretty soon. Which is hard, but worth it- If it makes me feel better....And this time around it will be easier to do because in just the two years that I have done it last, the Gluten-free nation is rapidly gaining popularity. This means more products, more attention, more restaurants hopping on the bandwagon, Yay!

I respect this practitioner so much because of how she looks at the patient.  She sees the whole picture, which is what every doctor should be trained to do, and what a good nurse does anyway, regardless of education. So, putting those two points together, a Holistic Nurse Practitioner makes absolute perfect sense and should take over as the Surgeon General or President of the United States, or something like that....

Doctors these days are losing primary care. Doctors don't want to go into primary care anymore, because its losing money. They aren't being trained anymore to "know everything" because once out of school, they go for the big bucks and they specialize. They specialize in one body system and they are "experts" in this system (most of the time). Well that's GREAT, except for when my Gastroenterologist is only looking at my GI system and not concerned about how whats going on in my gut can be affecting my anemia, headaches, heart, and so forth. It all Connects and this nurse practitioner is the first medical professional that I have seen that realizes this and is testing everything. I am so happy to finally be on the same page as a medical professional.

Its a shame that insurance companies aren't working with holistic practitioners (at least in this area) because if you think about everything I just said, they are stupid not too. Holistic Practitioners (whether they be a doctor or nurse) see the whole picture and are therefore more likely to make the patient well again. Also, holistic practitioners promote overall wellness and are more able to maintain it, which insurance companies should be interested in. Its got to be cheaper to keep a patient healthy with a little work than to treat big problems with a lot of work, right? 

I agree that sometimes, specialists are needed. Sometimes a primary doctor or a holistic practitioner gets in over their head and don't feel comfortable treating the case because they don't have enough knowledge about it. They get referred to a specialist for their safety. And those are the patients that should be seen by a specialist. But why should someone with chronic GI (and other) issues be seen by a GI doc when a holistic practitioner can see the whole picture and treat with natural supplements and diet? (Rather than a prescription for the rest of your life?) I hate prescription drugs. My GI doc wants to put me on one for the rest of my life....and well, I am doing everything in my power to avoid that.

So, I'll keep you updated! I won't know more until a couple of weeks, so look forward to it. :-) Thanks for Reading!



I feel like health is on the way =]


~A Writer in a Nurse's Body

The Frustrating Cycle of Doctorness

So here's how it goes...

I have "phases" or "bad days" of feeling really sick....It all hits at once. Sometimes I know what caused it (milk got into diet) and I'm OK with surviving through the consequences. But when something hits me and I have no idea whats causing it.....I feel hopeless. I say to myself, I need to see a doctor NOW, but its not serious enough to go to the ER, I just want to see one in an appt. I need to see him and show him the symptoms I am having NOW. But doctors don't see you NOW, they see you when they have an appointment open. By then, I feel better. I usually feel better the next day.

Despite feeling like I am going to die one day, and having myself so convinced that I promise to call the doctor the next day , the next day comes and I feel totally better and I think, "Well....I feel better now. I survived.  I helped myself all on my own. I don't need a silly doctor to help me." Despite feeling desperate for one the day before.

I am just so fed up with how our healthcare system.  I cant even beGIN to explain how frustrated I am with it all. I know something is really, really wrong me and its getting worse....but usually, you wouldn't know just by looking at me. And therefore, doctor's don't know. They have a hard time believing what they can't see. So they put you through endless testing, (sometimes more than once) to try and "see" whats wrong. If they can't figure it out- You are pegged with having Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

I spoke with an NP at the Nurse's convention that specialized in Celiac Disease. She had me convinced that a majority of all my symptoms somehow relate to Celiac Disease. I told her my GI doctor tested via endoscopy and denied it. However, sometimes it doesnt show up that way, especially since I had been on a gluten-free diet previously at the time. So she says I need to have a genetic test. Thats a sure-fire way of knowing if you have the gene or not.

*sigh*. Today is a bad day. But the doctors I want to see aren't open today, and I have so much work to do for the next week MONTH that I can't even envision having an hour to spend with a doctor anyway.

I just want a doctor to look at me, and understand. To believe me. To know what the flying duck they are doing.

*Frustrated*

~ A Writer in a (Frustrated) Nurse's Body

Why Allergies are on a Rapid Uprising

I am no stranger to allergies. I experienced my first anaphylactic reaction to peanuts when I was only one year of age. Since then, I have been very much allergic to peanuts and all peanut-related products, (peanut oil, peanut butter, etc.). But this is nothing new to me. So far, for the past 21 years I have been pretty excellent at avoiding peanuts at all costs (despite some close encounters). For some reason, some hot dog joints use peanut oil, and chinese places (some) cook with it too. People are often shocked when they learn I am allergic to what they think is a wonderful thing. If I had a nickel for every time I've heard, "You can't have peanut butter??! OMG I LOVE PEANUT BUTTER."  or  "Are you gonna die if I breath on you after I eat a Reese's Pieces?" , I'd be insanely rich.

The answer is no. I won't die.

21 years after my first discovery of my first allergy, I accepted the conclusion that I was also severely allergic to all kinds of dairy. I tried rice milk as a substitution and it may have been the cause of my hospitalization, so now I stay away from all dairy and dairy substitutes, except the soy milk found in my substitute ice cream.

Now, get this:

Although it is not a documented allergy and would never produce an anaphylactic reaction, I believe I am also allergic to the following:  chocolate, red dye, most all candy, wheat, bananas & oranges, and tomatoes.

So, its been fun. But I manage to survive, I still eat.

Anyway, while reading "The New Yorker" this week, I was attracted to This Amazing Article , written by Jerome Groopman titled "The Peanut Puzzle". The article highlights the fact of what I and many informed and in-the-nutrition-loop people already know: that allergies are on a skyrocket. More and more kids are being diagnosed with a food allergy nowadays. Practically every classroom now has at least one kid that is highly allergic to peanuts, let alone the dairy-free kids. Parents can't send their children in with peanut lunches sometimes, or can't put peanut products into bakery items because of this alarming rise over the past couple decades. Not only is peanut allergies rising, but dairy and gluten allergies have never been higher, or more publicized. Hopefully we can only see more improvements in that area.

The article is really very interesting. Unfortunately unless you are a subscriber you cannot access the entire thing in the link provided, but go to the nearest library near you and they might have a copy. One particular point I would like to bring up that the article spent a lot of time discussing is this: Restaurants are the allergen's worst nightmare. Although the food industry has made significant improvements in providing dairy, egg, gluten & peanut free products in the supermarkets, restaurants are really slow and not-interested in getting on the moving boat. The article states that "restaurant incidents result in a quarter of all unintentional exposures to peanuts and half of all fatal reactions." That is completely unnecessary. And why does this happen? Read the following passage:

"...focusing on New York City and Long Island, Sicherer found that about a quarter of managers and workers believed that consuming a small amount of the allergen would be safe; 35% believed that frying would destroy it; and a quarter thought it was safe to remove an allergen from a finished meal, like taking walnuts off a salad. Nearly three-quarters of food workers felt that they knew how to "guarantee" a safe meal. Most states do not require that food providers attend educational programs, and there are no national requirements..." -Jerome Groopman

o_0

so you can see how people are still exposed to their allergens. We can't live in a bubble. I know that during the time that I was temporarily gluten-free, eating at a restaurant was the primary cause of me getting sick. Even today, I tend to feel sick after restaurant food because of the strange things they put milk in.

So, because I don't like presenting problems that I do not have a solution too, here is my 22 year old naive and dimwitted version of a solution:
Like Groopman states, restaurant employees should be required to attend education classes on the following curriculum:

1) what types of food allergies there are (the common ones [peanuts] and uncommon ones [sesames] )
2) how to know what foods these allergens are found in, and sometimes hidden in.
3) Learn how to properly guarantee that cross-contamination has not occurred.
4) learn how to correctly complete someone's meal when they make the effort to tell you (the waiter, manager, or chef) that they are gluten, dairy, egg, or peanut free. OR anything else.

I know there are a couple restaurants that are catching on pretty nicely. Examples off the top of my head include "Outback Steakhouse" that has a gluten-free menu, Uno Pizzeria that has a gluten free pizza, and "Red Robin" who does not have a separate menu but have been more than accommodating to provide alternate menu choices.

The best "company" that I have ever seen accommodate food allergies is Disney. When travelling to disney, I personally met with chefs so that they could personally guarantee my meal was gluten free, and show me what to order. Even on the fast food lines, it was well-advertised what was and was not gluten-free. It was heaven for allergenics. If only all restaurants could learn from Disney...heck, if all companies could learn from Disney, we'd all be a lot better off in more ways than one.

Restaurants need to pick up on this fast growing....trend? problem?...pretty quick or they will not survive in business the next 10-20 years. Not only are there many people with real and serious allergies that could experience an anaphylactic reaction, but more and more people are making the choice  to remove dairy and gluten from their diets, to better their lifestyle. It is becoming more and more popular with adults, as well as young children suffering from autism and ADHD.


Just two years ago when I started gluten-free, unless it was in my imagination because I was "new to the field" it was not easy finding gluten-free products. And when I did find them, they tasted like cardboard. Now, in just two years, not only do supermarkets like Wegmans and WHole Foods make allergenic-shopping a pleasant experience, but ShopRItes "LiveRite" section also makes it easy and enjoyable too. The term "gluten-free" is all over the Internet and in ads everywhere (even on my Facebook page). I have two favorite products, special "K-toos" cookies that are gluten, dairy AND peanut free, and special pretzels that are dairy, gluten, soy, and egg free which is amazing. AND they both TASTE really yummy.

SO thats my exceedingly long post on allergies. But no really, try and read the article if you can. It was fascinating. Lots of good information..As always, thanks for reading.

~A Writer in a Nurse's Body

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