givin' blood

i got an email last week that they were short on my blood type, so i made an appointment. turns out the donation place is a half-mile from home. it was pretty great to go into an actual facility instead of the crampy bus that comes to work to get my blood. and the peeps were uberfriendly. i'll go back.

and, just so you learn something this week, i found out that i'm CMV negative, which the stanford blood center tests for. apparently, i have good blood that's safe for those with crappy immune systems. here's more:
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a common virus. About 50 percent of adults have antibodies to CMV, indicating that they were previously exposed to the virus. In people with normal immunity, this virus causes only a mild respiratory illness or an infectious mononucleosis-type syndrome. However, in patients with suppressed immunity CMV can cause severe illness.

Stanford Blood Center tests all donors for evidence of CMV exposure and about half of donations are found to be negative for CMV antibody ("CMV negative"). If you are CMV positive, your donation is still very valuable and will be given to a patient that does not require CMV negative blood. Blood from CMV negative donors is required for patients with suppressed immunity. Because most of our platelets are given to cancer patients who have suppressed immunity, we must collect most of our platelets from CMV negative donors.