THERE WILL BE BLOOD
Aug. 3rd, 2008 12:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogAs promised, the Ballad Of Mad Cow Disease.
When you last tuned in, we'd kicked off the Team Def Summer Holiday yesterday by heading to Stanley to buy me some Speedos. Before we actually left Disco Bay, the bridal unit and I decided to donate some blood at a local blood drive. Or rather, she decided to give some blood and teased me into joining her.
For you see, I’ve never given blood in my life. This is for a very simple and pure reason: I HATE the idea of a needle in my vein sucking blood out of me. I know it’s irrational, and that it won’t kill me. I suspect this fear stems from the time I had to give a blood sample, and the nurse stabbed me 17 times without finding a vein. By Attempt No. 18, I was perhaps understandably nervous.
Upon learning all this, KT did what any understanding bride of 11.5 years would do. She laughed in my face. At which time I decided it was time to face down my fears. Which I did.
So we went. And they screened us. And they rejected both of us.
Yes. KT was turned down because she’s athsmatic. And I was turned down because I am high-risk for Mad Cow Disease.
No, really. Apparently this is to do with the fact that I served on a US military base in Europe for two years between 1980 and 1996. The Red Cross explains:
Which means I can’t give blood because I lived in a high-risk area for vCJD for two whole years.
And that’s the story of how I started my holiday: by finding out I might have a variant of Mad Cow Disease in my blood.
Moo. MOO, I say! Come and get me, Vampire Lestat.
Etc.
We took it well. For the rest of the day, KT wouild call me The Mad Cow. And I would say in a bad East European accent, “I am not Mad Cow! I am Angry Cow! Why are you not my name be getting the rightness? All the timing with that."
Those of you who spent as much time as we did watching Sheep In The Big City may laugh along with us.
Yr blood is no good here,
This is dF
When you last tuned in, we'd kicked off the Team Def Summer Holiday yesterday by heading to Stanley to buy me some Speedos. Before we actually left Disco Bay, the bridal unit and I decided to donate some blood at a local blood drive. Or rather, she decided to give some blood and teased me into joining her.
For you see, I’ve never given blood in my life. This is for a very simple and pure reason: I HATE the idea of a needle in my vein sucking blood out of me. I know it’s irrational, and that it won’t kill me. I suspect this fear stems from the time I had to give a blood sample, and the nurse stabbed me 17 times without finding a vein. By Attempt No. 18, I was perhaps understandably nervous.
Upon learning all this, KT did what any understanding bride of 11.5 years would do. She laughed in my face. At which time I decided it was time to face down my fears. Which I did.
So we went. And they screened us. And they rejected both of us.
Yes. KT was turned down because she’s athsmatic. And I was turned down because I am high-risk for Mad Cow Disease.
No, really. Apparently this is to do with the fact that I served on a US military base in Europe for two years between 1980 and 1996. The Red Cross explains:
In some parts of the world, cattle can get an infectious, fatal brain disease called Mad Cow Disease. In these same locations, humans have started to get a new disease called variant Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease (vCJD) which is also a fatal brain disease. Scientists believe that vCJD is Mad Cow Disease that has somehow transferred to humans, possibly through the food chain.
There is now evidence from a small number of case reports involving patients and laboratory animal studies that vCJD can be transmitted through transfusion. There is no test for vCJD in humans that could be used to screen blood donors and to protect the blood supply.
Which means I can’t give blood because I lived in a high-risk area for vCJD for two whole years.
And that’s the story of how I started my holiday: by finding out I might have a variant of Mad Cow Disease in my blood.
Moo. MOO, I say! Come and get me, Vampire Lestat.
Etc.
We took it well. For the rest of the day, KT wouild call me The Mad Cow. And I would say in a bad East European accent, “I am not Mad Cow! I am Angry Cow! Why are you not my name be getting the rightness? All the timing with that."
Those of you who spent as much time as we did watching Sheep In The Big City may laugh along with us.
Yr blood is no good here,
This is dF
