Productivity Breeds Productivity

So far today I have:

  1. Taken Ethan to be groomed (they shaved great gobs of hair from him; he looks like a naked mole-rat now).
  2. Inspired by Ethan, gone to get my own hair cut at Ray’s Place. I do not look like a mole-rat. At least not completely.
  3. Donated plasma at Canadian Blood Services.
  4. Ordered a new pair of Brax trousers from Dow’s, something that’s been on my to-do list for ages.

I’m always asking questions of the friendly and helpful nurses at Canadian Blood Services, and here’s what I learned today:

  • My hematocrit reading was 42%, which means that 42% of my blood is red blood cells; this means, give-or-take, that 58% of my blood volume is plasma for the taking.
  • Each plasma donation involves extracting 500 ml out of me.
  • The average person has 5 litres of blood (I learned this from Wikipedia)

If my math is right, that means that roughly, 2900 ml of my blood (58% of 5 litres) is plasma, and that I donated only 17% of that to the cause, leaving me with 2400 ml still sloshing around inside me to do whatever it is that plasma does.

It’s only 3:35 p.m.–I have high hopes for the remainder of the day.