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All about blood – my blood

One interesting spin-off from my hospitalisation was (as I’ve already reported) that I found out what Blood Group I am. I’m AB- which means that I could only have got this blood group if my mother and father had been A, B, or AB. No O in my immediate family. I could have been an A, or a B, but no I ended up being AB- which accounts for a very small percentage of the world population (1%). It is also one of the newer blood types. There – I knew I was special. 🙂

Of course there’s more to it than that and I found the Wikipedia article on Blood Type fascinating to read. This led me to search out some of the more “fringe” connections to Blood Type, such as what diet I should follow and I read …

“People with this rare blood type should eat a combination of the foods recommended for blood groups A and B. Somewhat confusing when type B allows you to eat most foods, while type A suggests a vegetarian diet! Dr D’Adamo gets around this by suggesting that type ABs follow a veggie diet most of the time with some meat, fish and dairy products occasionally. It’s the same when it comes to exercise too – blood type ABs should combine calming exercises with moderately intense activities.”

… suffice to say the same article states …

“Medical experts universally agree that the theory is nonsense, and say there is absolutely no link between our blood group and the diet we eat. Consequently you won’t find qualified nutritionists or dietitians recommending this diet.”

So nothing to learn from that, although you might be interested in the wikipedia article on the same subject; but what about personality. The Japanese apparently all know their blood type and make a great thing of the link of Blood Group to Personality. What might my blood type reveal about me. [You can click on the graphic below to see a larger image.]

bc_thumb[10]

I’m not going to comment too much – I’ll leave others to comment, but I think I’m reasonably fairly treated by that one! 🙂 But what about this rarity thing – am I THAT special, should I be rushing down to the Blood Transfusion Service and offering to donate my blood (shades of the old Tony Hancock epic). I find out from their website that …

“Blood group AB individuals have both A and B antigens on the surface of their RBCs, and their blood serum does not contain any antibodies against either A or B antigen. Therefore, an individual with type AB blood can receive blood from any group (with AB being preferable), but can donate blood only to another type AB individual.”

So I’m not that much of a resource for donation after all, although they do say …

“AB negative blood

You’re brilliant…we need you to stay that way

Group AB negative blood is needed for the manufacture of plasma – a rich ‘soup’ of essential proteins – plasma is separated from red blood cells and frozen when fresh. Less than 1% of the population possess AB negative blood.”

So, since they have a shortage of AB- blood and there may be occasions where there’s another AB type needing blood – I should make the effort … shouldn’t I?

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Week 3 – Ups and Downs

Learning Points …

Last week was a bit of a roller-coaster. It had it’s ups – watching NW & NH in Denver do such a good job for the JISC and UKFAM; having TW visit and “patient-sit” me while Jenny went for a hospital appointment; having a lovely walk and chat with EW who was also “patient-sitting” me; and catching-up with a few things in respect of affairs I’m dealing with in Hastings. It had it’s downs – the urticaria and the “night sweats” both got me down quite a bit, but I had a really bad day yesterday when I got quite depressed. So what do I take from last week?

  1. Getting something “substantial done” is a big call – pottering is about all you can manage after an operation like this. You get extra-ordinarily tired, even when you don’t think you’re doing anything.
  2. Following on from this, I think I can fairly say that you suffer a progressive energy drain as the days away from Day 0 increase. I shouldn’t be surprised at that, should I? After all my body is mending itself … bigtime. Patience is not a virtue I possess. It’s hard when it’s being imposed on me.
  3. When the adrenalin rush comes, as it it did for a couple of days last week, do you ride the wave or throttle back? I really don’t know – I’ll tell you next week. I do know that Friday was a really low-day and that Jenny had to work really hard to motivate me to do anything. I felt really sorry for myself but it was interesting how a chance meeting with a neighbour (DJ) caused me to “buck my ideas up” and “snap out of it”, causing me to believe that I don’t need to stay in a depressed state for any length of time. I’m sure there will be other days like Friday, but now I know what to expect!
  4. Celebrate the fact that broadly I achieved the objectives I set myself last week. I did specify the PC; I have almost come to a decision about BT Vision – though we used it last night to watch the Frost/Nixon film; I did write a couple of blogposts (and I did a lot of reading and viewing of the Educause 09 Conference in Denver); I did spend some time on my own and in some small ways did more for myself. So on balance I ended the week in a better place than I started. Bring on the champagne – forgot, I’m off wine for a couple more days.

Hopes and fears for Week 4 – I think I’ve got myself into a better place mentally for the coming week. Have had two “setbacks” so hope to learn from them. An obvious fear I have is that I start feeling sorry for myself. Having written that down here – I trust it won’t happen. 🙂 I’m really looking forward to a couple of visits by friends next week. I realise that they could also be tiring, so I must make allowances and take proper rest as well.

Objectives – not so many this week I feel. I think the coming week will be a reading and watching week. Got some stuff I want to read, I may have got to the moment when I can give some time to some serious reading. I also want to watch more of my Michael Palin Travel DVDs; Planet Earth; and the Lord of the Rings – it’s about time I gave that another outing otherwise I’ll wonder why I ever bought it in the first instance. Also I think I’ll work my way through the complete Beatles collection which I bought a few weeks back. I’m surprised from my sampling to date how much I’m enjoying the tracks I didn’t like at the time, and how extra good the ones I did used to enjoy are now in re-mastered stereo. The most serious objective is to do more walking. Been too much “in my head” this last week, must get out and exercise more – it would be good to find some trousers though that don’t chaff the scar on my leg; that would make things easier. Perhaps I’ll resurrect my “joggers” from the bottom drawer. 🙂