Of cows and men

In an odd irony, Mathias' haematocrit [the ratio of the volume occupied by packed red blood cells to the volume of the whole blood - aren't you glad you asked!] level was down today. At the same time his re-generation of red blood cells is up... So in other words, he's producing more blood but he doesn't have anything to show for the effort - yet. It seems less likely that he will need a transfusion down the road.

However, as the intended donor, I was scheduled to donate blood today. They want to have the blood at least four days in advance to make sure that they have time for all the testing involved. Children's, and the "blood supply system" in general, are extremely cautious with their blood.

As you may know, I grew up in Sweden. Therefore, I was automatically disqualified as a donor. Not just in this case, but from donating blood in the US. Ever. There is some evidence that vCJD (AKA Mad Cow Disease) can be transmitted in blood transfusions. But there is no way to screen for this. Therefore, if you have lived, basically, anywhere in Europe for 5 years after 1980 you're out of the pool.

Or maybe it was the lutefisk contamination...