I never would have thought that a medical appointment would be a good thing. Today’s was! ‘-) I had a rare disease-related appointment this morning, in the downtown (city centre) area.
That’s about a 20- to 45-minute drive from my office, depending on the traffic. It was just a follow-up, with no procedures or testing planned. From a patient perspective, a good visit. No delays or waiting. No blood draws or injections.
To top that off, today was also the annual blood drive organized in part by the Canadiens de Montréal NHL hockey team. My team! I didn’t have any meetings at work later that morning, so took an early lunch break to stop in and give blood right after my medical appointment.
If I’d had a blood draw as part of my appointment, I wouldn’t have been able to donate blood afterwards. I’m a regular blood donor, so had already confirmed that I could still donate blood – despite all the medications that I’ve been prescribed for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS); also sometimes called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD).
At least being able to give blood is something that this nasty disease hasn’t stolen from me! My field is bioethics (also called healthcare ethics, or medical ethics), and I’ve always felt that it’s important for folks working in this field – as well as in medicine, and other areas of healthcare – to donate blood.
Although I’ve given blood almost 50 times now, I’d never been to one of the Canadiens’ blood drives; I wasn’t sure quite what to expect. It was definitely the best blood drive I’ve ever attended, and I’ll be trying to make it to this one every year now! Maybe I can schedule my downtown medical appointments on the same day as this event, every year ‘-)
Everyone who checked in to the blood drive was given a bottle of water and some veggie crackers, as a snack before donating blood. At another table I received a parking pass, because I’d parked inside the Canadiens’ building to save time; I saved $13.50 on parking ‘-)
Each donor also received a small re-useable Habs shopping bag, with a couple of Canadiens logo items tucked inside; a pen and an anti-stress ball. There was also a nice sports-themed desk calendar, from one of the local sports media outlets.
The little bag was a great idea, as it gave each of us somewhere to carry the bottle of water as well as the veggie crackers we’d already received. Great planning!
And, before even going down to the arena floor, each donor received a ticket for a hockey-game style lunch. The ticket was redeemable after the blood donation; a hot dog, potato chips (crisps, to my British friends!), and a drink (juice, soft drink, or water); right there ‘on the ice’! Not the healthiest lunch, but hey, it’s once a year!
Once I’d collected all these goodies, it was time to head down to centre ice. They’d covered the ice with a removable floor, but it was still very cool (pun intended!) to be on top of the same ice that the Habs will be skating on tomorrow night!
Once at ice level, there was such a large number of nurses, technicians, and other blood drive employees on hand that I didn’t have to wait. There are numerous steps in donating blood, but there were no waits at any point in this process today.
There’s usually quite a long wait after completing the initial donor questionnaire on a secure iPad, before meeting with one of the nurses for a required donor health screening. But after I’d completed my questionnaire, I didn’t even have time to sit down…
One of the nurses waved me over, into a cubicle with temporary walls. She took my vital signs; temperature and blood pressure. Then a quick finger-stick blood drop test to ensure that my iron level was high enough to donate blood today; it was!
Once those steps were completed, there was already a donor bed available for left-arm blood donations. All in all, this was my fastest blood donation ever. I wish my medical appointments would all take place this smoothly, this quickly! No waits, no delayed appointments ‘-)
As for the Habs fan moments, none of the current Habs players stopped by while I was at the blood drive; they were all still at their morning practice. But that’s fine; there were a few former players there chatting with blood donors and posing for photos. I got to meet a few former players, and picked up a few autographs for friends’ kids.
And had snapshots – not slapshots! – taken with Sergio Momesso, then with the Canadiens’ mascot Youppi, as well as with a local TV news celebrity; Christine Long. All in all, I think the strangest thing was to be down at centre ice and to see all the seats of the Habs’ home arena… empty!
The goal of this blood drive was 750 donors, and I hope they made it. When I left at lunchtime, they’d already met 30% of their target, and the blood drive was set to continue until 2000 tonight.
It was great to give blood, and to feel like a valued guest – rather than a number. I’ll definitely try to make it back to this annual blood drive next year, organized by the Montréal Canadiens and the Evenko event management company.
After that, it was back to work until 1700 and then rushing over to the physiotherapy clinic for 1800 for one of my many treatments for CRPS. Which is where I am now, writing this post!
One of my aims – with the rare disease portion of this blog and other social media – is to raise awareness of CRPS. So that no one else has to fight for a diagnosis, has to watch their body being damaged by this disease, all the while trying to prove to physicians and other healthcare professionals that something is truly wrong…
So I used the opportunity of today’s blood drive to again try to increase awareness of CRPS. Operating such a large-scale blood drive requires a very large number of nurses all in one place, which is a fantastic opportunity to educate folks about this disease.
I wore my dynamic hand and arm splint for CRPS (also to protect it from anyone touching that hand and arm!) and – as expected – several nurses dropped by to ask what it was for… So I was able to give a quick overview of CRPS to seven or eight nurses ‘-)
As I’d hoped, I was able to do some more awareness-raising about this rare disease. For the past 4 years, the first Monday of November has been the (unofficial) awareness day for CRPS, so I extended that by a week to raise awareness among these nurses today!
Thanks so much for reading, and have a fantastic evening ‘-)
