By chance, I checked the Red Cross site and found a Power Red appointment was available as part of a blood drive at Chippewa Valley Bible Church on South Ave. It was in 20 minutes and I was interested in the free antibody test, so I dropped everything, signed up and drove down. I had just learned from the site that Power Red was like a double donation of hemoglobin with plasma and platelets cycled back into the body.
I checked in with Stephenie, who had to read my temperature and then I sat and read Red Cross documents in a stackable chair in a huge, mostly empty church hall. When I finished, Stephenie sterilized the materials, read my temperature again, then pulse rate and prepared a hemoglobin test.
This was the main hurdle for me since I had been anemic as recently as 2 years ago. The first poke drew a score of 12.8 g/dL, lower than the 13.0 required for males. She poked a finger on the other hand and this time, it was 12.9. Still too low. So no donation from me. She gave me a deferral and a polite “better luck next time.” Other drives are coming up and the results of SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing is included with all blood donations.
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