Platelet donor

I am starting to work on my next entry about Malawi, about geography including a map. I hope to post this tomorrow or the next day.

In the meantime, some of you may recall that I wrote about making a blood donation sometime last summer. I think this was in early August. About ten days ago, the New Jersey Blood Services had an apheresis donor appreciation event that I attended. A nice buffet breakfast on a very rainy Friday. Considering that the weather was pretty awful, there it was very well attended. Hearing the people from NJ blood services talk as well as a couple of the recipients got me thinking about why I am an apheresis donor.

As I understand it, an apheresis donor is another word for a platelet donor. Platelets are the component of our blood that, among other things, form clots when we cut ourselves. Patients receiving certain forms of chemotherapy, for example, need lots of platelets as do certain newborn infants.

Many of you have probably donated whole blood at least once, perhaps in an employer or school sponsored blood drive. Whole blood donations take about 20 to 30 minutes. After your intake, you lie on a table and make your donation.

Platelets are one component of whole blood, another being red cells and plasma. Platelet donations take about one hour, not including intake. I donate double platelets, which takes a little longer. On top of donating double platelets, I can make a red cell donation about every 60 days.

Why do I do this? I do it because of people I know who live with cancer, or are in need of some form of transplant, or have received a transplanted organ. A couple of people who fit in one of those categories have touched my lives in special ways. Blood is the gift of life. As long as I continue to meet the various criteria for a blood donor, it is a fairly simple thing that I can do to help out someone who really needs help. A way of giving something back and of giving something to people I love. I can not, for example, give my friend one of my kidneys. But I can make a platelet donation for an anonymous recipient where my platelets mean the difference between life and death.

Why am I writing about Malawi?

Well, I'll tell you.

Over the last couple of years, I have been doing more reading about issues affecting the global water supply, with a focus on conditions in developing countries. Sometime in the late Spring, I had the opportunity to submit an article to Progressive Planning for their upcoming issue on water and politics. While there are many areas I could have chosen to focus on, for reasons I won't go into here, I decided to focus on Africa. Because I have never been to Africa, I knew that I needed some contacts. So, after several queries, I made contact with people who had been to Malawi.

Like a rock that gathers more and more moss as it rolls down a hill. One contact lead to other contacts, including people in southern Malawi. It is difficult to express in words how all this background research affected me. I can only say that I was and continue to be very moved by what I found out. In addition, I feel almost driven to keep going with research and writing about various issues affecting water quality and supply in southern Malawi.

I readily admit here that one of the things that I can not get past is that I have never been to Africa. Perhaps one day, all the necessary cards will fall into place, and such a trip will be possible. At present, I can only work with what I have, which is my compassion and my call to keep writing about Southern Malawi.

So, for know, I am going to do some writing about Malawi in the blog. As the title, random ramblings suggests, I will probably post other random thoughts on issues unrelated to southern Malawi in particular and global water supply in general. For those of you reading this blog who are interested in Malawi, I will endeavor to remember to mention Malawi in the title so that you can easily find postings about Malawi.

If I get something wrong, or "fail to be correct", I know that someone will tell me either privately or as a public comment. As appropriate, I will respond to these comments in this blog.

Grateful for sitting in the dark with no water

Last Friday afternoon, a line of squalls with high winds went through here in the middle of the afternoon. I didn't think much of it until I decided to take a break from my writing to see what was on the tube. Does this ever happen to you? The remote wouldn't work and I wondered what was wrong. It took me about one minute to realize that the reason the remote didn't work was because the power was off.

When we lived in northeast Jersey, we lived in a town with a municipal water system that, for the most part, kept us in water even during a power failure. Not so here, we have our own water well in our front yard. So, the only water we had was the water in our water tank, some bottled water, and a large trash can with water in it (a reserve for flushing). The power failure wasn't all that long, all things considered. It did run into the dinner hour, and fortunately for us, it was not widespread. So, we were able to go out to dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant.

Then we came home and sat in the dark with no running water. We grumbled and complained about this while listening to the radio and reading by flashlights. We dug up a few candles that provided a small amount of light. Cats and candles don't mix. At least we know that our cat and candles don't mix, so we paid close attention to where we put the candles as well as paying close attention to where the cat was.

A couple of hours after we got back from dinner, the lights came back on. All things considering, not to bad.

Why am I grateful for sitting in the dark with no water?

I spent several weeks working on an article about a remote village in southern Malawi, in sub-Saharan Africa. This article will be published in the upcoming issue of Progressive Planning, the quarterly publication of the Planners Network. The theme of this issue is water and politics. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, and like many other countries in sub-Sahara Africa and elsewhere, many people do not have clean, safe water for drinking, cooking, washing, etc. Poor water quality leads to a variety of public health issues including a high incidence of water-borne diseases such as cholera. Many of these same villages can not afford to hook up to the electric power grid, assuming the grid is nearby.

I have thought about the people in this remote village of southern Malawi quite often over the last few months. Writing about these wonderful people has been a life changing experience.

My lights came back on as did my running water.

My friends in Malawi are still waiting for the things that I take for granted, running water free from disease causing organisms and electricity. For some, the wait for clean and safe water may be too long, they may be dead.

Confessions

Ok, I have talked the talk about my intention to make an entry to this blog every day or so. And as you can see by the length of time since my last post that I have not lived up to this. So, This is both a public confession and a kick in the you-know-what to get me started again.

R.I.P. Cory Lidle and Tyler Stanger

Cory Lidle, a pitcher for the New York Yankees, died yesterday when his plane crashed into a high rise on the east side of Manhattan. His flight instructor, Tyler Stanger, was with him and died in the crash.

Both were young men, dead well before their time. Cory was 34 and Tyler was 26. My prayers are with Cory’s and Tyler’s family and friends as they mourn their loved ones.

Their deaths hit me heard because of my relationship with baseball and the New York Yankees. I have been a baseball fan most of my life. I live with baseball and the Yankees for six months a year where games are played virtually every day. Baseball games on TV or the radio, conversations over dinner, newspaper accounts of games we missed, and listening to sports radio are a part of our routine during baseball season. In a sense, the ball players on the Yankees are like a part of our family. In his short time with the Yankees, Cory has already left his mark on many.

He left his mark on me. Perhaps it was because he was a starting pitcher. Perhaps it was because of his love of life. Perhaps it was because those who knew him well spoke of a normal guy who loved his family. Perhaps it was because he spoke his mind and didn’t shy away from the media. Perhaps it was because he died doing something he loved, flying.

I don’t know much about Tyler Stanger. I wish I had a way to give him equal time here. He was a flight instructor, so I suspect that he too was passionate about flying. He too left a mark on people, and he a way that is hard to explain, he has left his mark on me. Tyler, I am sorry that I never got to know you. Dead to soon.

Like many other Yankee fans, I was deeply disappointed by their early exit from the playoffs. Somehow, their loss to the Detroit Tigers seems unimportant, as does the usual post–season intrigue. Two young men are dead.

I don’t have any information on Tyler’s family. Cory and his wife Melanie, have a six–year old son, Christopher.

Rest in peace, Cory and Tyler. You will be missed.

I'm back

No, I didn't go anywhere. My fall allergies lead to a sinus infection and a little bronchitis. I laid low for most of last week, and did very little writing.

I did watch some but not all, of the first round of the baseball playoffs. I am not even going to talk about the Yankees.

For those of you who are not up on baseball, the Detroit Tigers beat the Yankees to advance to the next round of the playoffs. Actually saying the Yankees were beaten by the Tigers is being much to kind to the Yankees. The heavily favored Yankees were embarrassed by the Tigers. The Tigers, who entered the last weekend of the season in first place in the AL central division, who lost all of thier games that final weekend to end up as what is known as the wildcard team (the fourth place team).

So, while the area media is ruminating about the fate of Joe Torre, the Yankees manager, I am trying to pick up where I left off before post season baseball (and my sinus infection) and go on with my life.

In the meantime, we are due to have another warm fall day. I am behind in my fall gardening chores. The weather is glorious, and I intend to enjoy it and get some chores done at the same time.

Fall is my favorite time of year except . . .

Fall could be my favorite time of year. The weather in September and October, even into early November can be very pleasant. Like today, temps will be close to 70, nights are cool and crisp. The early morning chill gives way to moderate temps by mid-day. On a day like today, I would, at most, wear a long sleeve shirt as a stand-in for a light jacket.

The one thing that I don't like about Fall are my allergies. What I try to remember as a sometimes moan about the inconvenience of my allergies is that, all things considered, I don't have it so bad. If the worse thing that happens to me is that I suffer from sinsus congestion, I am a lot better off than many people who are in far worse health than I.

And then there are the baseball playoffs which start this week which is always a special time of year for this baseball fan.

Today is the last day of the baseball season, and some the playoff spots are still up in the air.