 Dusty:Starlight:Culture
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Blood Bank Reject
2005-06-12 6:19 p.m. ...as in, I am one. There was a humongous blood drive at the Uni last month, and there is another big one being organized by a hospital in Newark, around the Uni. There are signs posted every other mile along the local highway I take to get to work, attached precariously or more permanently to overpasses and billboards, urging us all to give, give, give. My mother was a big blood donor at one time, feeling obligated, I'm sure, to give back all the blood my father needed when he was ill. Since the last few times she donated she left feeling ill, we begged her to stop - particularly to stop donating plasma, a process that really runs you down. To ease her conscience or perhaps mine, I thought I'd be clear enough by now to give, but no. A combination of third world country travel to HIV/Malaria-laden areas and a most likely active Hep B anti-body (not to mention Typhoid, Yellow Fever, Meningitis, and Cholera) flowing through my blood-stream via my vaccines and boosters means they're not interested in my blood. Can't say I didn't try - maybe next year things will be different. What was of interest to me, however, was that the forms to look over/fill out before giving blood also say "Please let us know if you have visited Central America, South America, or South East Asia at any time". Since those are all on my to-do list, and will probably be "done" within the next six or seven years, does that mean I can never give blood again? Or, are they just asking to check the dates of a traveler's visit against the dates of any outbreaks that might have happened in those areas, like my husband thinks? I'd never thwart third-world country travel plans just because it would result in my being a permanent blood-bank reject. Does that sound a tad selfish, or just realistic? There are other ways to help out the community-at-large, I suppose; I think my curiosity to find answers to these questions lies in a far more self-centered purpose: what is running around my bloodstream/body? Makes you wonder, indeed. Some days I am a little afraid that Steve or I will develop some kind of rash/high fever which will stump all doctors, until one approaches and says "You haven't been in...West Africa in the last four years, have you?", and then tells us we have some dormant weird-o form of Guinea Worm or something. That's our favorite abstract/foreign-sounding catchall for what we think we have when we're not feeling well, by the way. It's me and my hypochondriac tendencies that started it. After I heard what Guinea worm is, how it worked, and how gross it is (never mind how rare it is or that you can pretty much only contract it in the rainforests of Ghana and Cote D'Ivoire) when we were traveling around West Africa, I became irrationally afraid that I would wind up with it. So now, partially to be humorous and exaggerate our already exaggerated paranoia over being the slightest bit sick, and partly because we both lean toward the overly dramatic, whenever we're feeling the slightest bit off - from stomach aches to head-colds to minor skin irritations, it's "Honey! [Shows leg/holds throat/coughs/pats stomach] I have Guinea Worm!" Guinea worm took a bit of a holiday after I saw I Lifetime Television movie in which a woman had Selenium Poisoning. For a while, that seemed far more fun to say I had when I felt sleepy or head-achy, but Guinea Worm made a spectacular return when Steve had a bit of poison-ivy on his arm that took a few days to go away. I think this is because Guinea Worm actually does look like poison ivy, and if there ever was some logic or rationale for us saying that, it was a month ago after my birthday BBQ/Bocce Ball tournament when Steve got the tell-tale bubbly rash on his arm. Guinea Worm lives! My goodness, what a digression. Back to my original thoughts: I was told that as an alternative, I could give and store my own blood for use if I ever need it, thus ensuring myself a clean supply and at the same time not depleting the national bank of much-needed blood. But I'll pass. That seems like too much to think of now; I don't suppose any of us like to think of ourselves so laid up and ill that we need blood transfusions. Bleh. To completely change the subject, we had quite an adventurous weekend. We found out the hard way that Uncle Joe's and Trax, the former being a fun hipster hangout in Jersey City, and the latter being a hokey-but-ok 80's/synth dance place in Lyndhurst, both shut down permanently. Uncle Joe's was one of the only bars around here that aren't in Hoboken or Brooklyn but have outside seating in the summertime, and my Jersey City friends would DJ there every once in a while. We managed to catch Thomas and Nicole before they left the house to meet us at the bar, and then went from Thomas' in Kearney to Trax (only to find it closed), then from Trax to Lee's (a Tiki bar down the street) just as they were closing for the night. Feeling unloved and thoroughly rejected, we eventually found another bar and played fun drinking games until 2 am. I didn't think things would work out to be so, but I had the best time ever. More solid proof that as long as you have good friends around you whose company you really enjoy, it doesn't matter where you are. We had fun last night celebrating our friend Kevin's birthday, and today we went to the Portuguese festival in Newark. It was hot, there was a random and sporadic parade and the streets were over-run with people and vendors selling everything from sunglasses to pint-containers of sangria, so it was a bit like combat training for our up coming trip to another developing nation. Yee-haw. Speaking of travel - and when don't I, really? - Thomas might be meeting Steve and I after all in Cuzco. I was muy excited by this, as I often lament for a random but significant selection of friends as we're traveling; "Nicole would love this place" or "Wow, Andrew would so want to stay in this town for a while" very frequently come up as we make our way around. So now, and yay, Thomas is taking a seven-to-eight-day break from work to meet us in Cuzco, travel with us to Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley, and hike around Aguas Calientes and Ollantaytambo for a few days. I think we'll split off from each other when Steve and I head back up to Lima a few days before we fly back to NY, which would be just perfect. I really hope it works out. I'm trying to arrange a hostel for the three of us to meet at now, even though I should be doing some editing stuff. Viva Irresponsibility, tee hee! xoxox
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