Comments on: The Royal Disease http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/38824 Feel Smart Again Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:01:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.5 By: Diane http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/38824/comment-page-1#comment-225085 Diane Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:31:17 +0000 http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/?p=38824#comment-225085 Platelets are not used for hemophilia treatment; they have a different function in the clotting system. They are greatly needed, though, so good on you for taking the longer than normal time to donate them! The cold you felt was from the anticoagulant (harmless) that is added to the blood so it won't clot before it can get back to you. In your bag of platelets, there is also some of your plasma - the way you see them when you are done is generally how they are given to a patient - through an IV. Trauma, surgery and cancer patients are among the usual recipients. Hemophilia is a disease of clotting factors - the disease is treated by transfusing that clotting factor. I can only imagine how horrible the disease is - the slightest bump causing a painful joint bleed that won't stop bleeding! Platelets are not used for hemophilia treatment; they have a different function in the clotting system. They are greatly needed, though, so good on you for taking the longer than normal time to donate them! The cold you felt was from the anticoagulant (harmless) that is added to the blood so it won’t clot before it can get back to you. In your bag of platelets, there is also some of your plasma – the way you see them when you are done is generally how they are given to a patient – through an IV. Trauma, surgery and cancer patients are among the usual recipients.

Hemophilia is a disease of clotting factors – the disease is treated by transfusing that clotting factor. I can only imagine how horrible the disease is – the slightest bump causing a painful joint bleed that won’t stop bleeding!

]]> By: Dianne http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/38824/comment-page-1#comment-225076 Dianne Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:01:27 +0000 http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/?p=38824#comment-225076 Prince Leopold wasn't a monarch, he was a prince, his mother Queen Victoria was a monarch. (captcha is Sire Gordon, hehehe!) Prince Leopold wasn’t a monarch, he was a prince, his mother Queen Victoria was a monarch.

(captcha is Sire Gordon, hehehe!)

]]> By: Jonny http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/38824/comment-page-1#comment-225002 Jonny Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:46:58 +0000 http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/?p=38824#comment-225002 That's it? nothing about modern treatments for the disease. I always forget my blood type (A neg?), but when I was donating regularly they often asked me to donate platelets, which involved both arms getting IVed and the blood going from 1 arm, into a machine that uses a centrifuge to separate the blood and the platelets and then puts the platelet-less blood back in the other arm. Aside from not being able to scratch your face for 45 minutes, about twice as long as a normal donation, for fear the needles would do more damage, you often got cold, as the blood would assume the temperature of the machine and would come back in at something like room temp. But I'm not sure exactly how they used these platelets, if there was something a hemopheliac could use regularly or just in an emergency, as well as for a surgical patients that had unusually high bleeding. And how they were administered, by IV, injection, mixed w/ plasma or platelets only. That’s it? nothing about modern treatments for the disease.

I always forget my blood type (A neg?), but when I was donating regularly they often asked me to donate platelets, which involved both arms getting IVed and the blood going from 1 arm, into a machine that uses a centrifuge to separate the blood and the platelets and then puts the platelet-less blood back in the other arm.

Aside from not being able to scratch your face for 45 minutes, about twice as long as a normal donation, for fear the needles would do more damage, you often got cold, as the blood would assume the temperature of the machine and would come back in at something like room temp.

But I’m not sure exactly how they used these platelets, if there was something a hemopheliac could use regularly or just in an emergency, as well as for a surgical patients that had unusually high bleeding. And how they were administered, by IV, injection, mixed w/ plasma or platelets only.

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