Here is my public service announcement for today. I called Spectrum and got my bill reduced by $35/month for 2024. It takes so much time. Sit on hold. Get transferred to different people. But for saving $420/year, it was worth it. That is money going into our travel fund for 2025 😊.
I discussed with Verizon my bill a few weeks ago. There were newer plans I could sign up for without commitment, that were cheaper. I also enrolled in autopay from my savings account. Because of these two changes, my bill was reduced by $67 per month. Add that $804 per year to my travel fund for 2025.
I called Waste Management as directed from last year. They were able to reduce my bill by $40 (I pay annually not monthly) for the year. $40 bucks is $40 bucks.
Please look at your bills. It is a pain, but it can be worth making a phone call. I love saving money and I love helping others save money.
Avery and I went to donate plasma today. I was excited because the thought of helping someone that is really sick, makes me feel good. I hope someone returns the favor when it is myself or family that needs help.
I feel like if I am healthy, it is my community service (everyone chooses some way of helping) to help those in need.
We arrived at the plasma donation center. They made Avery and I watch a video about how you shouldn’t donate if you do drugs, inject yourself with things, have sex for money, have certain diseases or virus’s. I realized I live a very boring lifestyle.
They then separated us. They went through all sorts of medical questions. Avery zipped through her 65 questions. My lady took forever. She was really nice though. But very slow.
We got to a question about surgeries and I disclosed my kidney donation and back surgery. She back peddled. She said I needed a form to take to my doctor to fill out approving my plasma donation. The said form was to be delivered in person to my nephrologist (in NYC). I questioned why it couldn’t be emailed and that it would be a 12 hour trip to drop off this form. I also disclosed that my kidney values were perfect and even proved it with bloodwork on my phone. I was annoyed.
She then said she wanted to make sure I was safe (which I appreciate and understand) but she wanted to make sure my kidney was safe from the citrate they give donors to prevent their blood from clotting.
Citrate. Luckily I know that citrate is metabolized mostly in the liver. It has a short half life. And typically gets filtered out pretty quickly. It should be a non-issue. When I shared this information in an airy…”hey…isn’t citrate filtered by the liver and not the kidneys?” Kind of way, she kindly verified this information with someone on the medical team. Luckily we were able to bypass the hand delivered note to the nephrologist.
It was time to assess which arm they were going to use. The one lady looked at my vein, commented on how beautiful they were and bouncy. The one even told the other that there was no need to feel my arm because you could see my vein across the room. I often get these comments when I get my blood drawn or donate.
They started Avery about 40 minutes before me. As I was sitting down, I got a text from Avery saying “Mom, I failed!” She started feeling light headed and they shut her off early. Poor thing. I was so proud of her though. She spoke up and let the nurse know she wasn’t feeling well, which is hard to do in a new situation. She pulled out her Brave Ave face.
As they were disconnecting her in the next aisle over, Nurse Crabby Pants was hooking me up. My nurse was a bit stand offish and seemed a bit pissy. Her first question was “did you eat before you came?” I had read the website. I ate before I went, drank an appropriate amount of water, stopped caffeine when I was supposed to and felt like I had educated myself in a satisfactory way about what to do on the day of my donation.
“Yes” I said. The lady asked what I had eaten.
“Rice with chicken and cottage cheese” (I am still on a bland diet).
Nurse lady: rolls her eyes…”.the next time you come to donate, you really need to eat more protein.”
Last I checked, chicken and cottage cheese were “protien”. But I politely thanked her for the advice as it seemed she was already having a rough day. But it did rub me the wrong way.
I looked around at some of the people there. I questioned how they answered and passed the question, have you done injectable drugs or had sex for money within the past 4 months?
Nurse Crabby Pants inserts the needle. She tells me to pump my hand. She then told me I was pumping my hand wrong. Last I knew, pumping was squeezing and releasing. There really wasn’t a way to screw that up.
She then told me my vein was crooked. Ok…not all veins are perfect, you have to position the needle just so. The machine started running. Nurse Crabby Pants walked away. The machine started beeping and anlarming and she huffed back over. She showed me how to pump my hand, which was exactly how I was doing it. She huffed and puffed, pushing the needle in and pulling it out like it was a fiddle bow and she was playing “Devil Went Down to Georgia”. My fingers were turning gray and were tingling. She finally shut the machines me down and said she would have to poke the other arm.
She pushed the needle in and was adjusting it. She snapped at me to pump my hand. As I started to pump my hand, it was clear she had punctured through the vein and it was bleeding under my skin. I knew that after she blew that vein, my “donation” was over. Also, because of this little issue, I can’t donate ANYTHING for 8 weeks.
I felt terrible. Both Avery and I had not had successful donations. At this point we had about 2 hours into the process. What a waste of time. I felt defeated.
Avery had walked to Dairy Queen and had a snack while she waited for me. I texted her that I was done. She walked back over and was waiting for me outside the donation center. At this point it was dark out. As I was exiting the building, I saw a man talking to Avery.
I was immediately enraged. I am pretty sure I had a terrible and unfriendly face on when I exited. I made and held eye contact with him. I greeted Avery as I continued to study every last detail of him. He asked her for a cigarette. She told him she didn’t have any. He kept walking. Yeah buddy…keep walking. Don’t be sniffing around my child. The two of us walked in silence to the car. I was stewing over the man. “I really didn’t like that man talking to you.” I said to her. She also didn’t like it. Creep!
On the way home we both voiced what a waste of time this donation was. Then it dawned on me. It wasn’t a waste of time at all. This situation HAD to happen. I saw how many people were donating plasma. SO MANY PEOPLE!
When I donate blood, they are begging us to come back. They call and say they are in emergency need of whole blood. Ethan needed WHOLE BLOOD! I think this situation has made it clear that I need to stick with donating whole blood, not plasma. Life has a way of showing you things.
The people are friendlier at the Red Cross. I get to schedule an appointment which makes it quicker. They have never had issues with the way I pump my hand or placing a needle into my vein. I can still feel good about donating something…..duh!
While it wasn’t perfect, our experience was…ours. I feel like we are headed in the right direction with a simple blood donation moving forward. Good to know!
❤️
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