Blood Donation Stupidness (by sarah)

As some of you know I can't give blood due to having had a blood transfusion myself in the past - this is a newish rule and I have given blood in the past but I understand that there are risks of human mad-cow disease and things and these where becoming concentrated by the fact that those most likely to give blood are those who have had a life saved by it.

I personally would have died aged 4 and half without blood so am very keen to encourage people to donate. I try regually to get Al to go but after an initial issue of him being underwieght (for his height) he has just been too whimpy.

Then a friend of mine pointed out he couldn't give blood though being perfectly healthy - the problem? His sexuality.

(Warning I do obviously now talk about sex and things in the post.)

Know anal sex runs a higher risk of bleeding and therefore fluids mixing compared with virginal sex. So I always assumed the rules would be like - if you have had unprotected anal sex not for six months or something like that but it's not.

The exclusion is on men who have anal or oral sex with other men as they are a higher risk group for viruses that live in the blood. But hang on a minute HIV is spreading rapidly through the hetrosexual population and erm... what about women having anal sex with men and for that matter oral sex with men?

I could find no reference to them only if you've had sex with a man who's had sex with another man - but erm... that is assuming they would actually have told you? And then the restriction is 12 months before giving blood.

Prostitutes fall under the catagory of never give blood too. But what of say someone just sleeping around that is not mentioned plus they say all the blood is tested and they are always short of blood. There is no distinction over weather condoms are used for 'gay' sex. Why I wonder - last I checked they were still number one for reliability and protection. A woman on the pill who sleeps around I would have thought would be a higher risk than say men who have had say three boyfriends ever?

I don't have the statistics so I can't say for sure - but they are also lumping everyone/man together here. Though they are saying it's only men who have been sexually active with other men but there are different life styles.

Ok so the viruses such as HIV and hep. aren't detectable in early infection so leave that buffer zone of 12 months since unprotected sex or exclude everyone who have ever had anal sex or oral sex with a man! And that would include a large proportion of women!

I understand that this may result in more blood being taken that subsequently can not be used but would that out weigh the amount of usable blood you would get?

I wonder what the EU and other countries rule on this one and weather getting their transmittion data would be helpful here?

I may have missed it but I didn't see any restrictions on women having unprotected sex :/ Of any kind!

Minni Puss (by sarah)

Minni disappeared a while ago and because she would often go off for a while initially we thought she would come back. But she didn't which has led to a strange situation as in when to give up hope - we hunted high and low fearing she had got trapped in somewhere but she wasn't anywhere 🙁

No body was found but she was acting 'old' just before she disappeared i.e. not moving from the fireplace except to eat and maybe sit on a lap for stroking.

We had given up on our little puss cat but it has become evident that Jean hasn't. When Betsy died the vet gave Barbara the body which Jean watched being buried so after the initial Pooey Betsy incident she got over the fact Betsy wasn't there.

With Minni she still expects to see her and will tell people we have four cats though Minni is missing. Then when we went to the park we saw a huge black cat, sleek and powerful, sort of what Minni would have been if she was a young male cat. Jean called it over and stroked it and then said, 'It's Minni! Mummy it's Minni - she's run away to here and the people have fed her lots and lots so she's grown up big and strong!'

I didn't really know what to say :/ So I just 'maybe Jean.'

We are all really missing the black menace even if she did have the re-occuring anal gland problem which made her regually a smelly cat. I think Minni's absence is harder on Jean as write from the start Minni would guard Jean whilst she slept and things.

I think Jean may have not understood Minni was an adult cat - we got Hydrogen and Helium as kittens who grew up and even Tom hadn't finished growing when we got him (which is bad news as he was so underwieght).

Making the Floor Pretty (by sarah)

Feeling light headed once more I went for a lay down, I was awoken by Jean going, 'Mummy I've done a special thing to make you feel better!'

'Oh thankyou Jean what is it??'

'I've made the floor pretty for you!'

'Oh! Ok thankyou Jean' I scrambled out of bed fearing paint and pen all over the carpet. Instead there was lavandar and daisies and buttercups etc... in a trial from my bed to the settee. Jean explained that it would make things smell nice for me to.

I smiled and kissed her and we were clearing up flowers for days!

Opps On My Back Again :/ (by sarah)

I realise that I haven't actually blog that I'm pregnant yet but hey I'm pregnant and scatty!

But mainly this post is about how I ended up once again flat on my back surrounded by concerned by people wanting to call an ambulance - as to what happened I'm not entirely sure :/ We'd gone to the farm shop to have ice-creams and for Jean to play on the toys etc... I came out of the shop with an ice cream and bottle of water saw stars and the next thing i knew people where rolling me onto my back with mum shouting from a distance that I was pregnant and Jean telling everyone I was her mummy :/

My main thought was - oh no I've landed on the ice-cream Jean will get messy eating it now. Jean picked up the ice cream and after a bit of me explaining I was ok and would phone the midwife I was helped onto a chair the shop people bought out for me - along with more water!

Jean then handed me the ice-cream because me and the baby would need it now.

A phone call to Alaric got me the phone number I needed but I have to say thought processes where being a bit fuzzy - so mum ended up phoning and explaining I was seeing stars.

And so poor Jean was whipped off the toys and we where in the care heading to Stroud Maternity. We picked up Alaric and my notes on route (as we had to almost drive past the house anyway plus I wanted him there as I knew I wouldn't remember stuff).

Blood pressure is great and there was not protein in my wee - yay! This was a major concern after the whole hypertension and pre-eclampsia thing from before. I have however had a bad stomach which is why drinking the amount of water I was wasn't enough to keep my hydrated :/

Also they said they had had several girls in at this sort of stage in the pregnancy passing out and they where all fine too - it appears to be the weather!

Especially as we all had headaches but no temperatures or anything. Apparently the body goes down hard with anything and everything before 16 weeks as it's still forming the baby and that's all it's interested in - after that it's just growing so your body starts caring about you again.

But I'm on rest again for a few days and if there is no improvement in 24 hrs I have to go back etc...

I hate finding myself on the floor surrounded by people wanting to call abulances :/ But thanks guys (on the off chance any of you will ever read this) and thanks to the Primrose Vale staff and sorry we didn't tell you to come and get your chair back.

Convince Alaric to let the Drs Put him under the Chop (by sarah)

Alaric has a... well nipple on the back of his head, the size of which only became apparent when we chopped off all his hair to try and deal with a dandruff problem. The dandruff problem turned out to be interesting as well but more on that later!

This lump on the back of his head has a distinctive look and I found a couple of smaller ones on him (one of which I had accidently mangled with a razor 🙁 ). The Dr says it's a variation on a wart but isn't that contagous but that it should be removed - doesn't have to be but should be. It will really need a scalpel taken to it as it is too large and fleshy to be frozen off and it simple wouldn't get it all.

Any way - due to the horror on Alaric's face the DR said he could think about it - I think it should be removed - help me convince him