Hey everyone! This is Ashley checking in. My mom worked all day and is now stuck in that beautiful LA traffic, so thought I'd fill you all in on my Dad's day so far.
First of all, I wanted to wish my amazing parents a happy anniversary. I'm sure this isn't exactly what they had in mind for it, but in sickness and in health, right? After taking care of some things around the house (by things around the house, I mean picking up what felt like 5 months worth of dog poop in the backyard) I drove down to COH to hang out. Dad had a physical therapist come in who's going to work with him while he's in the hospital to keep up his muscle tone and balance, and make sure that he doesn't sit on his butt watching tv all day every day. They're happy with his baseline fitness level, except for balance. I'm 99% sure he's where I get my coordination from I guess. I brought our Wii from home and the staff at COH was awesome sending someone from tech support out to hook it all up to his tv, so we had fun playing Wii sports. Well, I had fun playing every game on there except boxing. My Dad KO'd me in 10 seconds every time, not even joking. I wish I could say I was letting him win...
I then went to donate platelets for him at 12:30. It was a really easy process. You fill out some paperwork, and if you're donating for my Dad you put his full name- Steven J. Swanson, and his birthdate- 5/12/55. I went and sat down on this bed with all these heated blankets and they first test your blood to make sure you have sufficient platelet, hemoglobin, and iron levels to donate. After that, they put 1 needle in your arm that's attached to 3 different tubes. Your blood drains into 1 tube that goes down into a centrifuge, while the second tube delivers saline and heparin, an anti-coagulant (this makes sure your blood doesn't clot in the machine). The centrifuge then separates the platelets from the rest of the blood cells, which are then transferred back into your arm via the third tube. It's crazy that they just need 1 needle in 1 arm now, as opposed to having a needle in each arm like they used to do. It took about 2 hours from start to finish, and it was honestly pretty painless! Given that my Dad's platelet levels are about 20,000, and normal is between 150,000-450,000, it's probably good I got that done! Thank you so much to those of you that have donated platelets already. That's amazingly thoughtful of you, and we truly appreciate it! When my Dad gets a platelet transfusion, his bag will have a yellow sticker that says "Directed Donor," and we'll be reminded of your generosity.
Now we're just hanging out watching the Seahawks-Lions game, marveling about how it must be nice to have a QB that doesn't throw ints every 5 minutes. Thank you for all your well wishes, thoughts, and prayers. Everything is much appreciated.
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