Blood Transfusion

30th December (Tuesday) - Today I'm going to talk about my favourite procedure. Blood transfusion. :D Back in the days where I was a student, I rarely get to see blood transfusion, well, unless you are in the Daycare, but then there's no supervisor to observe and give you your cross, so it's out of the question. In all of my students year, I only managed to transfuse tiny packs of platelets. Whole blood or packed cells, never. So I gotten chances to practice my blood transfusion and let's just say, I seemed to enjoy playing with the bag. No, not throwing it up and down. But I enjoy poking it, especially if it's fat (> 400 ml ). *pokes bag*
So far the blood bags that I transfused are huge. They are often more than 400 ml and today, a whooping 506 ml. Aiyee, but wait, I'm not complaining. I actually played with the bag for a while waiting for the bag to cool down slightly since it was cold. To transfuse blood, it cannot be too cold. But you need to wait for it to be slightly at room temperature and arming yourself with the blood warmer. So yeah, let's poke the bag for a while *pokes bag*,
The first thing that people always get blood transfusion wrong. You can just directly shoot the blood into the person who needs it. A typical movie mistake. Before you can even give blood, you need to flush the line with a 100ml Normal Saline first. If you directly give blood without flushing, you will end up clogging the whole line. Like a clogged up drain. Blood is actually really thick. That's why you need to flush the line first so that once you give the blood, it can go in smoothly without blocking the whole thing.
Another typical movie mistake: When you set blood, wheee, it goes straight in, super smooth like syrup. :D Wrong again. You try priming blood yourself and you'll know how it feels. We sometimes end up hopping like mad bunnies because the blood is too slow, or some other stuff occurs like a sudden reaction. And like it or not, the blood has to be completed within 3-4 hours. No more than that. Because the blood product might be infected after 4 hours of exposure, and we do not want to risk patient getting micro-organisms into their bodies. So far, I always managed 4 hours, no more than that, a little bit late, but not to the point of 5 hours. At first you go slow, once okay, say it's about more than half a bag, we speed it up a little. When it reaches very little, we full blast it.
People seem to always say blood transfusion is a good thing. Well, trust me, it's not once you know all the risks behind it. When I was admitted for dengue, my platelet dropped to about 50, my red blood is borderline (it always is), but thank God the doctor didn't say I need transfusion. Even if he does suggest it, I refuse. Let's just say, blood is not always considered clean. I know nowadays lab are up to date with modern hi-tech screening, but there are some tiny things that may be overlooked on. My parents mentioned to me that although the blood may say its screened negative, sometimes unfortunate things happens (But so far, I haven't seen anything bad happening). And too much blood transfusion can cause iron toxicity.
I guess that's about it. Always wear your gloves, get your flushings ready, and get ready for routine close monitoring. 15 minutes for 1 hour, 30 minutes for 1 hour, then hourly til the blood ends. Back to poking the bag *pokes bag*.  :D
A running joke that often seems to involve blood bags. Vampires ripping the blood bags with their teeth, or in some instances, poking a straw through the bag and drinking it like boxed drinks.  

* Read this while listening to this song.
Final Fantasy VI OST - What? : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIRBuIyqIE0