Donating Platelets

Yesterday I donated platelets for the first time. I have to say that while a slightly uncomfortable experience, the staff were excellent, friendly and professional.

I've been donating blood for a while, and a month or so ago they asked me to go in for a test to see whether I could donate platelets.

I can, and yesterday I did it for the first time. It took around an hour and a half, and was only mildy uncomfortable. A machine takes the blood,spins it round a centrifuge to extract the platelets and returns the remaining blood to the body. Because you are not donating whole blood you can donate more frequently.

Platelets go mostly to people being treated for cancer or leukaemia, people with sever infections or who are recovering from major operations.

I think everybody should give blood, and if you can donate platelets then you really should. It really does save lives. It's easy to be selfish and not have the time, but what about when it's you or your family, your children, your parents. You would be shocked if a doctor turned round and said sorry, there's no blood.

It may be an inconvienience and it may be uncomfortable, but it is worth it.

Driving Miss Daisy

Legoland Windsor 012
Originally uploaded by BigBadJock.

Beth burns some rubber at Legoland

Wow

I'd almost forgotten I'd set this up, and looking back at it, I'm sorry I didn't keep it going, it's a brilliant record. Therefore as of today, I'm going to make a concerted effort to post as often as possible.

On the drawbridge 

By the moat 

At Hever Castle  

You Lookin' at me? 

Smiling Sisters 

Heather in her new (tiny) pool 

Beth and her new horse 

Visit to Hever Castle

We took the girls to Hever Castle on Saturday. Enjoyed the lovely weather walking around the beautiful gardens, had a picnic by the lake. Enoyed a jousting competition. A very nice day out.

Beth's Chatter

Beth's talking has improved massively in the past 3 weeks, she has gone from 2 words like : 'milk daddy'  to longer sentances of 5 or 6 words. It's really amazing to watch her trying to work out how to articulate what she wants to say.

She comes out with statements like 'Ann, Beth own home' when asking Hannah's friend Ann to come to our house, and 'Ann Pram Ann own house, Beth pram Beth own house'.

She really is improving daily

Weekend

We had a quite weekend at the house, because Beth got the special treat of staying with her Grandparents. She got to go shopping, and on Sunday had the special treat of going to Old Macdonalds  Farm (http://www.oldmacdonaldsfarm.org.uk/). Beth loves horses.
 
We got on with cleaning out the loft. Several boxes of books are now destined for either a boot fair (if we can find one) or a charity shop.

Heather standing up next to Patrick 

Grandad with all 3 grandkids. 

Heather looking lovely on Nana's knee. 

Baby Patrick having a well deserved kip. 

Beth urging everybody to be quiet and not wake Baby Patrick. 

A new addition

Hannah's brother Jim and his wife Rachel are proudly showing off their baby son, Patrick.

Young Paddy was born late on Friday night after a very long (and difficult) day for his mum and dad.

However, despite looking as if he's joined his dad in a scrum, he seems to be very happy and contented. We visited yesterday, and said hello, however he didn't really seem that interested in anybody but his mum.

Beth was facinated by "baby pat pat", but a sleeping baby didn't maintain her interest for too long. I'll check out the photos we took later and if we've got a good one, I'll add it to the site.

Toothy Girl

Heather cut her first tooth yesterday. It's on the bottom, and still too small to be seen. Hannah had to deal with several interuptions to her sleep last night to administer Calgel. Apart from that Heather seems quite happy.