Talking About Blood Transfusions*

This post will be talking about blood transfusions and if you’re a squeamish or have issues with blood then I apologise. I don’t cover as many health-related topics as I probably should on my blog and there’s a reason for that. As a woman that has had a hysterectomy I no longer feel comfortable talking about periods on here. It feels wrong of me to talk about a topic that I no longer experience. There are however other health topics that if approached I will write about. If I’ve not experienced them but family members have then I will share them to try and raise awareness of them. The last mega health post I wrote was about disability and was I ready to be labelled as such. I have a feeling this one will be just as long but is an important topic.

When I had my surgery I knew that a blood transfusion was a potential aspect of it and had my blood taken at my pre-op appointment so they would know my blood type just in case. Funny story. I don’t know my blood type. I’ve never actually been told and I’ve never been able to donate myself due to low blood pressure. This is something that will forever annoy me as I would love to be able to donate to be able to help those that need it. This article by Health Digital* explains why blood donations are so important. It also outlines the blood types and the percentage of the populaltion with that type too.

It’s not just me that this has affected in my family. My mum had a transfusion as part of my birth. Because of when I was born, however, she’s not been able to donate blood since either. Hopefully this will change one day but for now, she’s on the sidelines annoyed that she can’t do more to help when she has received blood in the past.

I’ve also been lucky/unlucky (can’t decide on word choice here) to see a transfusion in action. They can be a long process and because of this I now can’t watch if I have blood taken by a nurse.

My grandmother was in hospital for a long period of time with cancer and one of the treatments was blood transfusions. The only problem was due to how long they take, they were running while we were visiting and is, unfortunately, an image that has stuck in my mind. Whilst her transfusions and chemotherapy gave her longer with us, they didn’t save her and she died a few years later from other cancer which had spread throughout her body.

This is one topic that I feel strongly about and I believe that more people should be talking about blood transfusions. If you’d like more information about this topic then it can be found on the Smart Cells site. As well as blood transfusions another important health item to take care of is cleaning your ears regularly. If you have issues doing it yourself then a visit to Cleaner Ears could be what you need.