Blood Donations....

I have O negative blood--a very desirable blood type. Blood banks and Emergency Rooms know the high value in some O negative!! We are the Universal Donors!! We can give to anyone!! So why on earth would I NOT do the best thing for everyone and donate a pint as often as they will allow me to? Well....I used to! Then the day came where things changed for me as a donor. I was donating at a blood drive--kind of a portable donation site. Then my blood stopped flowing! It was already running slowly, then next thing I knew, I had "blown a vein". I had a golf ball sized lump in my arm! This happened around the year 2003. They told me next time I donated, to go to their center, so they could see why it had happened--they would be able to pour out the bag and assess the cause. A few months later, I did just that--same thing happened. The bag was inspected and it was determined that my blood was too thick and clotted in the needle. I was told that, for any future donations, I should take aspirin beforehand. The bag could be marked and it would not be given to children or pregnant women.

It is funny how a diagnosis can make one think--"I wonder if THIS was related to THAT"....so today, I searched the internet, locating this article.....

http://www.arthritisresearchuk.org/arthritis-information/conditions/sjogrens-syndrome/diagnosis.aspx

which had this excerpt:

Blood tests – people with Sjögren’s syndrome often have high levels of antibodies in their blood. These can be measured with a blood test. High antibody levels can make your blood thicker than usual, and this is measured by an erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) test. The ESR measures how fast the cells in a tube of blood settle. The thicker your blood, the faster the cells settle and the higher the ESR.

SO I wonder--was this my first sign, or will I think back to other things from earlier times, and determine that I have been living with Sjogren's much longer than I now know? And I suppose you may ask...well what difference does it make? This is the difference....we need to make sure this syndrome is detected sooner! We need to know what we can do to prevent some of the problems which arise over time. Without detection and diagnosis, we can't possibly get any help!!