I am an Aphaeresis Registered Nurse. This means I use a machine to collect or exchange a component of a person’s blood. A special machine is involved that uses a centrifuge to separate the desired component present in blood and I have extra training to be able to perform this job. Not many people have heard of the procedure but it can be compared to donating blood. Blood is collected and the component parts are separated into units of red blood cells, platelets, white blood cells and plasma.
In the course of my training I have met patients who have touched my life in special ways and I would like to present them here in this setting. The first story involves a special nurse I met while treating a very sick man whose white blood cells were high from leukemia. The procedure involves taking out thousands of his white blood cells and discarding them.
I went late Friday night to do a white blood cell depletion (leukopheresis) on an elderly gentleman with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in the ICU at a local hospital. He was on reverse isolation and contact isolation so I had to glove, mask, and gown for a three hour tax. Needless to say I was feeling sorry for myself (I did not want to be there since I had plans) and had a bad attitude but I was quiet and by myself since the nurse sat outside the “fishbowl.” Patient was sedated while on the ventilator and not doing well.
Anyway the regular nurse went on a break and a young nurse named Joyce came into the room to do some stuff with the zillions of IV’s. She looked at me and said, “Can I tell you something?” I told her sure since I was bored. She told me a story about her husband. He had been diagnosed with leukemia two tears ago. He was in his early thirties, a paramedic, and had never been sick before. He went in for a routine physical and the doctor just happened to do a CBC, which turned out to be very abnormal!
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