The time sure passes pretty fast 'eh? It's just like a blink of eye it's end of year 2007 already. There's a week to go to the new year, which means I'm going back to college pretty soon too.
I've been spending most of my holidays staying at home and went working. To be honest, I've forgotten about college's studies lol. A bad bad move, as I'm having my AS and A2 exams next year, aiks.
Recently I've been going out and enjoy some great time with friends. I appreciate the time we're able to hang out together, especially those secondary schoolmates. Although some of us haven't seen each other for quite some time, we are still able to hang around like the old days.
Few weeks back, Fei Wen asked me to join her Red Crescent Society's blood donation campaign, held in my school Chong Hwa. I wanted to pledge my blood for the good deeds earlier in college, but for some reason I didnt do so.
Last Sunday morning I went back to the school to donate my blood. It seems I reach there quite early (9am), I should've realise that most of my friends promised to come will only came here at late morning. I went through the initial check-up for my blood, only to be told by the nurse that for my condition I cannot donate blood.
So what's going on with me? Why I cant donate blood? The problem lies with something called G6PD deficiency, meaning that I lack of a kind of enzyme in my body. I was told that I wasn't the only one whom the nurses refuse to draw our blood out. A few other friends who came late face the same fate like my case too, but whether they're G6PD patient or not I dunno. Oh well, I cannot donate blood for the rest of my life, sigh. It somewhat feels guilty that a chance for you to make a good deed is shut down. :(
Enough of depressing stories for now, let's talk about some more cheerful events happening.
On the Christmas Eve, I was invited to my friend, KY's house for an annual Xmas party. I was absent for the past 2 years' Xmas so I've missed pretty much stuffs happening at his place. I had a good time there spending with friends, joke around and eat some good food.
I think I'm the biggest winner of the day as I collected quite a lot of gifts there heheh.
My gifts, the Santa hat and the Santa doll. Other than this I also receive a snack and I think the best gift of the year, a few GBs of latest Japanese animes, hahah.....
So on the morning of Christmas, I went to picnic at Titiwangsa with Form 5 classmates. Sadly, only 5 of us went instead of the original 8.
We brought quite alot of food go there, especially Sam's father generously cooked a whole pot of fried noodles!
We walked along the large lake park and took photos on the way.
Pretty much stuffs going on for me, I wonder when I'll have the free time to do all these again? Heh, year 2008 will not have much time for my own leisure, unless the A2 exam is over, somewhere in Nov. 1 year from now, heh.
I believe that you can still donate, if you want to, though you will have to go to GH Blood Bank....
ReplyDeleteQ. When I was informed that I have G6PD deficiency, I was told that I couldn’t donate blood. Is it true?
A. G6PD deficiency is a genetic blood disorder. It is an inherited condition that affects the body’s red blood cells.
The great majority of people with G6PD deficiency are healthy and do not experience any symptoms clinically. As such, they are still allowed to make blood donations. However we usually would advise donors with G6PD deficiency to donate plasma or platelets via apheresis technique instead of whole blood. RBC donations are not recommended as their bone marrow is already working hard to compensate for their condition and we do not want to further exhaust their marrow. The red blood cells of those with G6PD deficiency are also more fragile. These red blood cells have a shorter lifespan and hence would not be suitable for transfusion to anaemic patients.
Apheresis is a specialized form of blood donation in which only plasma or platelets are extracted from the donor. The donor’s RBCs are filtered off simultaneously and returned to the donor’s circulation. The donor’s weight must be 51 kg or more to qualify for apheresis donation. The cubital veins must also be sufficiently large to allow adequate venous access. In addition, donors must have a minimum hemoglobin level of 13 g/dl before they can give blood and a minimum hemoglobin level of 12.5 g/dl before they can make an apheresis donation. This will be tested prior to any donation.
Hey PF!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this info, I didnt know this earlier on lol.
clf,
ReplyDeleteYou got to get some clarifications from PDN on this.
I took the info from donorweb.org dated 16th Feb 2006: http://enews.donorweb.org/2006/02/16/donors-voices/
Home page: http://enews.donorweb.org/
It is done in Singapore & is recommended by the Singapore Red Cross Society.
However, in Malaysia - I'm not reading sure.... going by these two blog entries...... then again, we can't be THAT backwards.... if S'pore Kiasu, then Malaysia surely Boleh! mah....
Blog Entry: 15th Oct 2007
http://arihtimid.blogspot.com/2007/10/unexpected.html
Blog Entry: 24th Dec 2007
http://cherylmeryl.blogspot.com/2007/12/no-more-blood-donation-forever.html
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BTW, reading through the PDN panduan, downloaded from our Pusat Darah Negara website - I'm unable to find any restrictions on donations by G6PD deficiency people, though I ain't no doctor, but I do know that Apheresis extraction can only be done at the Blood Transfusion Centre (BTC) at Jalan Tun Razak....
"Penderma Aferesis (apheresis technique) hanya perlu menderma sebahagian komponen darah mereka iaitu plasma dan platelet tanpa membabitkan sel darah merah dengan menggunakan mesin khas yang dipanggil Mesin Aferesis."
http://www.pdn.gov.my/contact.html
Pusat Darah Negara
Jalan Tun Razak,
50400 Kuala Lumpur.
Telefon :03-2693 3888