Speaker 1: My project manager, Katrina. She and I when we would
Speaker 1: run into a problem that we needed to solve, or
Speaker 1: I would say, I'm going.
Speaker 2: For a walk.
Speaker 1: She and I were walking this time along the Milwaukee River.
Speaker 1: I was telling her about my platelet donation. I said,
Speaker 1: you know, they called me up and I went in
Speaker 1: and I was just telling her. I thought it was
Speaker 1: really cool that they took the blood out and grabbed
Speaker 1: the platelets and put it back.
Speaker 2: And she stopped.
Speaker 1: She looked at me, and she says, you know, if
Speaker 1: it wasn't for blood products and platelets, I probably wouldn't
Speaker 1: have survived childhood leukemia and I wouldn't be here. So
Speaker 1: there right in front of me was somebody who was
Speaker 1: a recipient of something that I have the ability to give.
Speaker 1: And that was sort of my light bulb moment, saying,
Speaker 1: maybe you should go back in two weeks when you're
Speaker 1: eligible and.
Speaker 2: Do it again. So I did, and I started.
Speaker 1: That's kind of what started my I call it now,
Speaker 1: I call it my grateful habit, because it's a habit.
Speaker 3: Now, Welcome to an army of normal votes. I'm Bill Courtney.
Speaker 3: I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father,
Speaker 3: I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach an
Speaker 3: inner city Memphis, and the last part somehow led to
Speaker 3: an oscar for the film they made about our football team.
Speaker 3: It's called Undefeated. I believe our country's problems will never
Speaker 3: be solved by a bunch of fancy people in nice
Speaker 3: suits using big words that nobody ever uses on CNN
Speaker 3: and Fox, but rather by an army of normal phones. Guys,
Speaker 3: that's us, just you and me deciding Hey, maybe I
Speaker 3: can help. That's what John Norman, the voice you just heard,
Speaker 3: has done. John has donated platelets over one hundred and
Speaker 3: sixty times, which is helping to save lives while sitting
Speaker 3: in a chair for ninety minutes, something almost all of
Speaker 3: us can do. I can't wait for you to meet
Speaker 3: John right after these brief messages from our general sponsors.
Speaker 3: John Norman from Port Washington, Wisconsin. Where in the world
Speaker 3: is that.
Speaker 1: Just north of Milwaukee about fifteen to twenty miles.
Speaker 3: Does that make you a Brewers fan and a Packers fan?
Speaker 3: Packers fan for sure, Yeah, and a Brewers fan. I
Speaker 3: don't watch a lot of baseball, but it's a fun game.
Speaker 3: I got it at Bucks Basketball.
Speaker 2: Bucks for sure.
Speaker 1: Bucks and six, although not the last couple of years
Speaker 1: we just got knocked out.
Speaker 3: Well, you got a superstar up there. Sounds like he's
Speaker 3: not real happy to be up there anymore.
Speaker 1: They've got their things going on. I also don't pay
Speaker 1: much attention to the Bucks unless they're unless they're winning.
Speaker 1: I'm not a fair Weather fan. But I grew up
Speaker 1: in Colorado and we did not at the time have
Speaker 1: a We had a basketball we didn't have a baseball team,
Speaker 1: so I never got into baseball right And I was
Speaker 1: born in New Mexico and went to Alaska. No baseball
Speaker 1: teams there either, so baseball was not a thing.
Speaker 3: Let me throw one on you a Denver basketball Frian.
Speaker 3: One of my favorite players was Keiky Vandaway. You remember
Speaker 3: that name at all?
Speaker 2: That sounds familiar.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, he was. That was eighties he was. He
Speaker 3: was a really good shooter. Anyway, not why you're here, John,
Speaker 3: but thanks for thanks for flying down from Port Washington
Speaker 3: and visiting with us. Alex, how do we find John?
Speaker 3: You found us, I know, tell us about it. Alex
Speaker 3: the producer will tell us how we found John.
Speaker 4: He emailed us one day. Yes, this email wasn't boring.
Speaker 4: His email wasn't born, so we responded to him, think,
Speaker 4: sure you should say it was in the email, John,
Speaker 4: it's better coming from you.
Speaker 1: I do remember sending this email because I'd kind of
Speaker 1: discovered you guys, and I was donating platelets one day
Speaker 1: and I'm like, this is pretty much a normal person
Speaker 1: kind of thing to do, and anybody can do it,
Speaker 1: almost anybody. So I sent you a quick email just
Speaker 1: saying just part of your part of your army, our army.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember that part, but I
Speaker 1: put the y in parentheses and yeah, I just wanted
Speaker 1: to call out that donating blood and platelets is an
Speaker 1: important thing to do, and it's something that I thought
Speaker 1: at the time this is just enough information for a
Speaker 1: shop talk. Never thought i'd be called here to come
Speaker 1: into an actual interview, but there was more that came
Speaker 1: with it later on.
Speaker 3: I guess, well, there's more to your story too, which
Speaker 3: I can't wait to get into. And it's cool that
Speaker 3: we are now organically getting a lot of our guests,
Speaker 3: which is why I want to tell a story, because
Speaker 3: before even start, I want to remind everybody that at
Speaker 3: the end of all of these things, we beg folks.
Speaker 3: To send us ideas for shop dogs, beg folks to
Speaker 3: send us stories of people they know, And you're living
Speaker 3: proof that we're serious about that. And it is just
Speaker 3: cool that we're getting organic guests from the show who
Speaker 3: listened to the show tell stories, and you're emblematic of that.
Speaker 3: Something else I think you're emblematic of is that we
Speaker 3: really want to challenge people to think beyond massive five
Speaker 3: OHO one C threes and beyond huge organizations, that an
Speaker 3: army of normal folks can exact a great measure of
Speaker 3: change just doing what they can and their neck of
Speaker 3: the woods, seeing their areas and need and filling them.
Speaker 3: And John, I mean that's what you do.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to be part
Speaker 1: of that army and doing one thing at a time.
Speaker 3: Well you are.
Speaker 4: But first, I think I gave you the actual email,
Speaker 4: don't I?
Speaker 3: Bill, What's that?
Speaker 4: Isn't the email in your prep email the email that
Speaker 4: John sent us originally?
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know. Maybe I think it's I don't
Speaker 3: think it is. Really, Yeah, you didn't do your job
Speaker 3: this time, Alex. I mean I always brag on how
Speaker 3: good a job you do prepping me. Now I will
Speaker 3: say that I watched the whole YouTube video. So that's
Speaker 3: that was really nice that you spent the ten seconds
Speaker 3: to attach that. Thank you. Okay, So John, sorry, alex
Speaker 3: Is just sit in a corner. Hey, Passius, could we
Speaker 3: get like a curtain like at the Wizard of Oz
Speaker 3: and just pull it across his area so I don't
Speaker 3: have to deal with him? Thanks, appreciate it. We'll install
Speaker 3: that maybe next week. Awesome. I know that you know
Speaker 3: you're giving back because you were I guess I'm going
Speaker 3: to use a word I don't even know if it's right.
Speaker 3: A scout master maybe, or what you were like in
Speaker 3: charge of your So you volunteer doing stuff with your
Speaker 3: sons and cub Scouts and boy Scouts, and that means
Speaker 3: you're engaged with a bunch of other kids too. I
Speaker 3: assume and absolutely all that and put a normal life.
Speaker 3: And then one day your work hosted a blood drove. Yep,
Speaker 3: what was that about? So?
Speaker 1: I worked at a life science company at the time
Speaker 1: in Milwaukee, and I don't know so this this company
Speaker 1: at the time, this is the part that I was
Speaker 1: involved in. They worked with pharmaceutical companies and helped them
Speaker 1: with things like their helpline. If you've got a drug
Speaker 1: and you got questions about it, you can call up
Speaker 1: and learn more about it.
Speaker 2: We had people on staff there that would that were.
Speaker 1: Trained to answer those questions and at least triage them
Speaker 1: and if if they didn't know the answer, could send
Speaker 1: them to somebody that knew more. And I was only
Speaker 1: working there because it was it was an IT job
Speaker 1: that I could do. They offered a blood drive for
Speaker 1: the entire company. They said, We're going to bring in
Speaker 1: a blood center Wisconsin and set up in our lobby
Speaker 1: and you're welcome to take time off of your day
Speaker 1: and donate blood. So I think this is an easy one.
Speaker 1: It's literally right down the hall. And I had not
Speaker 1: given blood since maybe a couple times when we were
Speaker 1: with the boy Scouts we were at some.
Speaker 2: Place where they offered it get blood.
Speaker 1: Probably no I was the adult forcing our kids somebody
Speaker 1: to get blood. I'm like, I'll go if you go.
Speaker 1: But that was years before, and before that, maybe in
Speaker 1: high school, I had donated once or twice. So I
Speaker 1: went and it was took twenty minutes and I was
Speaker 1: back at work. And a week later I got a
Speaker 1: phone call from the blood center and They said, you know,
Speaker 1: you've got a really high platelet count and your blood
Speaker 1: type is one that we would normally lead you in
Speaker 1: this direction. Would you consider donating platelets? And I said,
Speaker 1: what's the difference? How you do that for question? They said, well,
Speaker 1: it takes a little bit longer. We'll explain it to
Speaker 1: you when you get here, just playing on a couple
Speaker 1: hours instead of twenty minutes.
Speaker 2: I'm like, all right, that's cool. So when can I
Speaker 2: do this?
Speaker 1: How early can it because I need to come to
Speaker 1: work afterwards. So I set up an appointment to go
Speaker 1: into the blood center. I had to wait a while
Speaker 1: because I had given blood and you have to wait
Speaker 1: eight weeks after giving whole blood.
Speaker 2: So I went in.
Speaker 1: I set up an appointment at six o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 1: and I walked in and I'm signing into their sheet
Speaker 1: and one of the questions on the.
Speaker 2: Signing sheet was have you donated before?
Speaker 1: And I answered no, And the person behind the counter said, well,
Speaker 1: why did you just check the noebox? I said, well,
Speaker 1: I've never donated platelets before. This is a new thing
Speaker 1: for me. You said you'd explain it.
Speaker 3: When I came from scouting, and one of the twelve
Speaker 3: things has to be something to do with honest.
Speaker 2: I think that was probably one of the ones I missed.
Speaker 3: Got a boy, Okay, go ahead.
Speaker 2: Actually I don't think honesty is in there. It's kind
Speaker 2: of implied before.
Speaker 3: You drop this line. I want to divert real quick.
Speaker 3: You're there signing in and they're like, why are you checking?
Speaker 3: And you check. No, we'll pick up back there in
Speaker 3: just a moment. I had a guest on that gave
Speaker 3: me some demographics or some data, not demographics, some data
Speaker 3: around blood donors, and it made Alex co give blood.
Speaker 3: It was John that was the data was from John.
Speaker 4: I pulled the data online.
Speaker 3: You pulled the data after John's okay, so it was
Speaker 3: you pulled the data, all right. The data, to me
Speaker 3: is what was so opening, And we're going to get
Speaker 3: to it because I think there's going to be some
Speaker 3: data about the next thing we're going to talk about.
Speaker 3: But I want to remind our listeners what that data
Speaker 3: is and I'm going to screw it up, So correct me,
Speaker 3: all right, but I'm going to go for it.
Speaker 1: You probably know better than I do, Alex. Alex should
Speaker 1: remember I don't feel in any details with me.
Speaker 3: Please quite referring to the man in the corner. So
Speaker 3: the data I think that is right is that only
Speaker 3: three percent of the population donates blood. And okay, I
Speaker 3: am sure there are low percentages of people in the population.
Speaker 3: They do lots of stuff that should be done. But
Speaker 3: here's where it really kind of was eye opening to me.
Speaker 3: If you're in a car wreck and go to the yar,
Speaker 3: you need blood. If you're a cancer patient, you need blood.
Speaker 3: If you have any kind of surgery, you need blood.
Speaker 3: If it's almost inconceivable that throughout life, you or someone
Speaker 3: in your immediate family that you love or both will
Speaker 3: not need blood more than one time in your life.
Speaker 3: So here's the data that I siphon from that. One
Speaker 3: hundred percent of every single person walking around in our
Speaker 3: country today will need blood for themselves or someone in
Speaker 3: their immediate friend, not a distant friend, their immediate family
Speaker 3: that they love at least once and probably two or
Speaker 3: three times before they reach death.
Speaker 2: For sure.
Speaker 3: One hundred and only three. So there's three out of
Speaker 3: one hundred people in the world in the world are
Speaker 3: supporting the entire medical community.
Speaker 1: And it's actually less than well, I'm gonna I'm going
Speaker 1: to back up on that a little bit. It might
Speaker 1: be less than that because only sixty five percent of
Speaker 1: the population are eligible to donate. Because what if you
Speaker 1: already had cancer, or if you've got some blood or whatever,
Speaker 1: your your high blood pressure, got a heart condition.
Speaker 3: Only two out of every three people hand right, and
Speaker 3: then only three percent of who came.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that, Yeah, it might be a
Speaker 1: lot less either way, it's a really small number.
Speaker 3: Right, let me move the sheet back just a second, Okay, Alex,
Speaker 3: you can speak now. Is that data about, right? Is
Speaker 3: the adult population is the way they that's fair absently
Speaker 3: adult population. But still it's nothing. It's nothing. And when
Speaker 3: Alex did the data and we were talking to you
Speaker 3: on the shop talk and your information, I think you
Speaker 3: you went and gave blood like the next week, didn't
Speaker 3: you know?
Speaker 4: I mean it was almost a providence providancial thing. My
Speaker 4: church just happened to be having a mobile you know
Speaker 4: thing in the next week. So it's honestly, I can't
Speaker 4: give myself too much credit. Like it literally was in
Speaker 4: my backyard in the next week.
Speaker 2: Really, yeah, Well it was easy, wasn't it.
Speaker 3: It was? Yeah? And I gave blood about two and
Speaker 3: a half weeks ago because I said I was going
Speaker 3: to deals. Yes, tell you that nice big deal. All right,
Speaker 3: And now a few messages from our general sponsors. But first,
Speaker 3: our next live interview in Memphis will be on June
Speaker 3: twelfth with Father Mark Hannah. Father Mark and a team
Speaker 3: of four other civilians saved over fifty lives on nine
Speaker 3: to eleven and the rest of his team died while
Speaker 3: trying to save more people. After nine to eleven, Mark
Speaker 3: became a Coptic priest and hence the father title. It's
Speaker 3: part of our lunch and listen series that we've been
Speaker 3: doing at Crosstown Concourses Myphis Listening Lab, and you can
Speaker 3: learn more at RSVP at Fathermark dot event bright dot com.
Speaker 3: We hope to see you there. We'll be right back.
Speaker 3: So first to everybody listening right now, when we talk
Speaker 3: about being an arman, normal folks, and you can see
Speaker 3: an area need and fill it and you don't have to,
Speaker 3: I mean, be part of any big organization, go give blood.
Speaker 3: It takes.
Speaker 2: Minutes, maybe half an hour times.
Speaker 3: And to be honest with you, I felt great after
Speaker 3: I gave blood, Like I don't know, I was like
Speaker 3: lost weight or something. I know that sounds stupid, but
Speaker 3: that's exactly how I felt.
Speaker 2: With blood. They take it, they don't give it back
Speaker 2: to you.
Speaker 1: So you're missing a paint stuff right right, and your
Speaker 1: body feels it and your.
Speaker 3: Body start doing more. I don't know why it feels
Speaker 3: good afterwards, but I really feel good.
Speaker 2: Not like maybe because I did a thing physically.
Speaker 3: I actually felt lighter. It was weird, I.
Speaker 2: Think, so, well, you probably felt lightheaded. I mean, you're
Speaker 2: missing it.
Speaker 3: I don't know what I felt, but it was great
Speaker 3: and I'm going to continue to do it. And Alex
Speaker 3: is too.
Speaker 1: I think I heard somebody else on your podcast, to
Speaker 1: your podcast that you had, the woman from Box. She
Speaker 1: was saying that she had donated and she said it's
Speaker 1: also kind of a health thing because you lose calories
Speaker 1: when you're donating blood.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there you go. So everybody listen. If you're thinking,
Speaker 3: what can I hold it just one second? Cassius, have
Speaker 3: you given blood? Yeah, Alice, Cassius is not giving blood.
Speaker 4: Well he didn't hear our Shop Talk episode, so.
Speaker 3: Well you heard it now, Alex. I mean, Cassius, what
Speaker 3: you're going to do? Casius? Everybody, it's a challenge. This
Speaker 3: is a twenty minute thing. And honestly, this is how
Speaker 3: I reconcile it with me. I or someone of my
Speaker 3: family is going to need blood. And my father in
Speaker 3: laws had opened our surgery he had to have blood.
Speaker 3: My son Max coated after a football accident. His spleen
Speaker 3: blew up and they put seven units in him. Seven.
Speaker 3: He bled out he'd be dead if somebody had neggaive blood.
Speaker 3: How selfish would I be to be able to give
Speaker 3: blood and people need blood and have had two very
Speaker 3: close family members survive because of that blood, and not
Speaker 3: retard the favor we need to give blood? So okay,
Speaker 3: all soap box? You checked no?
Speaker 1: I checked no, yep, I've never been here to give
Speaker 1: plate No. Why'd you check that box? I've never been here.
Speaker 1: So and again I'm like, you guys are going to
Speaker 1: explain this to me when I got here. So I'm
Speaker 1: just trying to follow the rules here too. And they're like,
Speaker 1: but you've donated before. I said, no, I never haven't it.
Speaker 1: Ten fifteen seconds later, my twin brother walked in the door.
Speaker 1: He also had a six o'clock in the morning Friday morning,
Speaker 1: six o'clock appointment to donate platelets that day, and he
Speaker 1: had started a few months before I did, and probably
Speaker 1: for the same kind of reason. I don't know if
Speaker 1: we ever talked about. It was just kind of a
Speaker 1: freaky twin thing that happened that day, and I thought, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think maybe I'm supposed to be here.
Speaker 3: That's pretty that's very cool. And the same kind of
Speaker 3: reason was you gave blood. They said your plate look
Speaker 3: count was high and they looked good.
Speaker 2: He's got the same blood type I do.
Speaker 3: And your blood type is only what nine percent of
Speaker 3: the people in the world have. Your blood, that's what
Speaker 3: I understand be positive is and so yours is pretty valuable.
Speaker 3: And so he did it, and you do it. You
Speaker 3: bounce into each other and you're both giving platelets. Now
Speaker 3: that's an interesting thing. That was cool.
Speaker 2: So it kind of freaked.
Speaker 1: There's actually a phlebottomus there who when we were both there,
Speaker 1: she had she had an aversion, not an aversion, but
Speaker 1: unconscious fear of twins.
Speaker 2: And whenever we were there, she left.
Speaker 3: Are you kidding? There's a phobia? There's a twin? Is
Speaker 3: it really?
Speaker 2: She was? She was super nice and whenever it was
Speaker 2: just me, no problem.
Speaker 3: That is so weird that some kind of vampire with
Speaker 3: a phobia. That's weird. Okay, So let's talk about platelets,
Speaker 3: because I didn't know anything about him until I did
Speaker 3: a little research after knowing I was going to meet
Speaker 3: with you. But blood can be stored. I think blood
Speaker 3: can even be frozen, can't It not true?
Speaker 2: I know it can be stored.
Speaker 3: For a fairly significant period of time. Platelets can't. And
Speaker 3: I'll let you explain it before we go any further
Speaker 3: so that people understand what the world platelets is and
Speaker 3: why it takes two hours instead of twenty minutes. But
Speaker 3: just ninth grade biology, I remember that platelets are what
Speaker 3: helps your blood. I think it's coagulate. Yep. Is that right?
Speaker 3: So why don't you just let's before we go any further,
Speaker 3: let's talk about why platelets are different than blood, why
Speaker 3: they're so valuable, what they do, and then what the
Speaker 3: process is giving them in why it's different.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you hit the high point of platelets. Platelets
Speaker 1: are the part of your blood that coagulate and and
Speaker 1: heal your wounds. If you get a scratch or a cut,
Speaker 1: that's what helps stop the bleeding at that point. And
Speaker 1: that's because if you don't call out coagulate you just
Speaker 1: just keep bleeding, right, So it's super important. And and
Speaker 1: like you said, if you're in surgery, then it's blood.
Speaker 1: If you are a cancer patient, you're going through chemo
Speaker 1: or radiation, that'll knock down your blood counts but also
Speaker 1: knock down your platelet counts and that puts you at
Speaker 1: risk of bleeding out or having issues with that.
Speaker 3: So platelets are so if you're if you're going through
Speaker 3: chemo and god forbid, you get a car wreck or
Speaker 3: something else happens where you need share of surgery. If
Speaker 3: the chemo knocks down your platelet clown, they can't even
Speaker 3: do the surgery on you because.
Speaker 2: That might be the case.
Speaker 3: Yeah, wait out.
Speaker 1: Or if you've got cancer and I hope I don't
Speaker 1: say this wrong because I haven't I don't really know
Speaker 1: all the answers to this, but if you're getting this treatment,
Speaker 1: it'll knock your platelet counts down to the point where
Speaker 1: they won't be able to give you other treatments because
Speaker 1: your body can't recover. So the platelets for cancer patients
Speaker 1: are are really really important.
Speaker 2: I mean blood is too.
Speaker 1: Most cancer patients will need both. Some cancer, depending on
Speaker 1: the treatment, you might not need platelets is a cancer patient,
Speaker 1: but most of them do. And the ones that I
Speaker 1: end up running into because I'm donating platelets and telling
Speaker 1: stories about them, those are the people that I've connected with.
Speaker 1: But it's super important for that. But platelets are just
Speaker 1: one part of your blood product.
Speaker 2: But it's not easy.
Speaker 1: You can't just sit there for twenty minutes and drop
Speaker 1: it in a bag. It's something that takes a little
Speaker 1: bit longer.
Speaker 3: Tell me about the process.
Speaker 2: So the process, it's very.
Speaker 1: Similar to giving blood. You sit in a chair and
Speaker 1: they put a needle in your arm. This needle, though,
Speaker 1: is a little different. It's hooked up to a machine
Speaker 1: called an a freesis machine that will draw the blood
Speaker 1: out of out of your arm and it runs it
Speaker 1: through I'll just call it to simplify it, just a
Speaker 1: centrifuge or a series of centrifuge that depending on how
Speaker 1: it's set up, it knows all right, I'm gonna put
Speaker 1: the platelets over here, I'm and keep everything else and
Speaker 1: after it's process that, then it returns the rest of
Speaker 1: your blood back to your body.
Speaker 3: That's interesting. Yeah, I thought that was the coolest thing,
Speaker 3: sifting the platelets out. Yeah, and then.
Speaker 2: That's weird that aunt bunch of little chipmunks in there going.
Speaker 3: There's one it's like a magnet for platelets or something
Speaker 3: like that. So it's collecting platelets. And but why's it doing.
Speaker 3: Why don't they just take the blood out of you?
Speaker 3: You know why they do that? So they used to
Speaker 3: do that.
Speaker 2: They used to use the machine.
Speaker 1: They would take the blood out and then they would
Speaker 1: separate it into their number. There's plasma and there's blood
Speaker 1: cells and platelets, and they used.
Speaker 2: To separate it out all in one shot.
Speaker 1: In fact, if you look at some of the pictures,
Speaker 1: you'll see multiple bags hanging from the from the rack
Speaker 1: while I'm donating.
Speaker 2: Now the only two.
Speaker 1: Bags get filled with the platelets. But they used to
Speaker 1: also pull plasma and blood at the same time. The
Speaker 1: technologies get just gotten better. They they'll do whole blood.
Speaker 1: They'll do a double red is very similar, where they'll
Speaker 1: hook you up to a machine and take and through
Speaker 1: the technical process.
Speaker 2: They'll pull out more red blood cells.
Speaker 1: So if you donate double reds, you'll have a twelve
Speaker 1: or sixteen week waiting process.
Speaker 2: So you can donate again. It takes your body more
Speaker 2: time to build what new blood cells than it does
Speaker 2: to do platelets.
Speaker 3: Oh, well that makes sense. So when they're putting the
Speaker 3: blood back in you, it allows you to give platelets
Speaker 3: more often because your body.
Speaker 2: Is Yeah, exactly, it's exactly it.
Speaker 3: Why does it take two hours, It's.
Speaker 2: Just the process of extracting it from your blood.
Speaker 3: Does it feel different you mean when it comes back? No,
Speaker 3: when you're sitting there, the two hours that you're sitting
Speaker 3: there is a sensation any different.
Speaker 2: It does get a little different.
Speaker 3: Listen, we're challenging people to go give plate lifts. Well,
Speaker 3: a lot of people have a fear of needles, a
Speaker 3: reasonable fear of going and sitting in a chair and
Speaker 3: talking to a vampire who has a twin phobia. Who's
Speaker 3: going to them problem.
Speaker 4: Just to be clear that I don't think most full
Speaker 4: bottomists have that particular issue.
Speaker 2: They're just straight vampires.
Speaker 3: Oh are they just straight vampires? Okay, this is anyway.
Speaker 3: But they're going to do this and and I mean,
Speaker 3: if I'm considering giving to play, let's I think it's
Speaker 3: valuable to know what the process is and how it feels.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, it does feel different in it, so that you're
Speaker 1: going to get a little bit of pain when the
Speaker 1: needle goes in and it's it's weird. You can feel
Speaker 1: the blood being drawn out because it's under pressure. In fact,
Speaker 1: there's a little there's a little screen where you can
Speaker 1: you can kind of see the pressure as it draws
Speaker 1: the blood out, and then the bottomus the vampire will
Speaker 1: stay there with you until the first time it gets returned,
Speaker 1: because that's just as important. If the needle gets put
Speaker 1: in the wrong spot and maybe maybe goes through the vein,
Speaker 1: that's maybe not such a problem if you're just donating
Speaker 1: and the blood's flowing out and it's not coming back.
Speaker 1: But if it if it comes back and the needles
Speaker 1: has punctured the veins in muscle, it's really painful. And
Speaker 1: and but I can I just have to put that out.
Speaker 1: I don't ever want somebody to stop donating platelets. That's
Speaker 1: happened to me a few times. It hurts, they take
Speaker 1: care of you, it heals. It's not life threatening. But
Speaker 1: I have to point out you might run into that,
Speaker 1: but suck it up, Buttercup, you're about to save up
Speaker 1: to three lives. So what's a little needle stick and.
Speaker 3: A little that we're going to get to. But I mean,
Speaker 3: just go ahead.
Speaker 2: If you want to know what it feels like, just
Speaker 2: pinch your arm for a couple of seconds.
Speaker 3: It was either on a video or maybe in the prep.
Speaker 3: You said, sometimes you're you can feel your lips.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they put some sort of I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's a starch or some sort of material in the return,
Speaker 1: just to help keep things flowing.
Speaker 2: Well, like, that's how I understand it.
Speaker 3: Anyway.
Speaker 1: I don't know whether it's like it, but but that
Speaker 1: will give your lips sort of a tingly feeling. Some
Speaker 1: people get that make metallic taste in their mouth, and
Speaker 1: that's why some people say I just can't do it.
Speaker 2: I can't stand that.
Speaker 1: But again, and that's personal, right, But yeah, it feels
Speaker 1: a little different. And sitting there for two hours, isn't it?
Speaker 1: It's two hours total. It's usually maybe an hour and
Speaker 1: a half for me. I have a friend, though it
Speaker 1: totally depends on your body weight, your your heart rate
Speaker 1: and other things.
Speaker 2: He's done in an hour. For me it takes an hour.
Speaker 2: And okay, but yes, it's different.
Speaker 3: What do you feel like when it's over? I mean,
Speaker 3: don't need to do anything?
Speaker 2: No, they well, I use this to my advantage.
Speaker 1: They tell you not to over exert yourself during the
Speaker 1: day and like lift weights and lift heavy things and
Speaker 1: stuff like that.
Speaker 3: So you're happy to go sit on the couch.
Speaker 1: That's why I do it a Friday, and my wife
Speaker 1: will say that I'm worthless on Friday nights. I totally
Speaker 1: use this as my excuse to just I donate a
Speaker 1: platelests to day. I saved three lives, so I'm just
Speaker 1: going to sit and relax, and.
Speaker 2: They told me not to exert myself.
Speaker 3: Something else about platelets is they can't It's not like blood.
Speaker 3: They only last what three.
Speaker 2: Four five days, five days, five days, So you got
Speaker 2: to use it when you got them, and if you
Speaker 2: need them, you need them.
Speaker 1: So that makes platelets even even more important to donate
Speaker 1: because you can't store them and just keep them on
Speaker 1: the shelf for a while.
Speaker 3: I think about Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital here in
Speaker 3: Memphis and all those children that have answer and research.
Speaker 3: I've gotta believe they're constantly backing for the platelets. With
Speaker 3: a hospital full of huldren, I would think so, I
Speaker 3: would think.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 1: I know our blood center provides, We're they've got a
Speaker 1: five state system, but all the blood essentially goes local us.
Speaker 1: It's really a need that's near enough they can get to.
Speaker 1: You kind of have to got to have a good
Speaker 1: organization to logistically handle getting all that stuff around.
Speaker 3: So it's cool. But there's this there's this weird synergy
Speaker 3: that happened in your world is you get platelets and
Speaker 3: then a face gets put on your giving for you. Yep,
Speaker 3: we'll be right back. So that I think it's interesting
Speaker 3: how a name gets a face gets put to your
Speaker 3: I mean, look, you're giving platelets, you're giving blood. Clearly
Speaker 3: your brother's doing it. That's awesome. But something happens it
Speaker 3: kind of changes it.
Speaker 1: So that was the first time that I donate platelets
Speaker 1: when I ran into my brother there at work, my
Speaker 1: project manager, Katrina, she and I when we would run
Speaker 1: into a problem that we needed to solve, or just
Speaker 1: kind of run into a roadblock mentally for something I
Speaker 1: was working on, I would I would say I'm going
Speaker 1: for a walk, and she would come with me.
Speaker 2: Every once in a while we'd go get a cup
Speaker 2: of coffee or whatever.
Speaker 1: But our our in our office literally took up a
Speaker 1: city block, so sometimes it was just walking around the block.
Speaker 2: A few times she and I were walking this time
Speaker 2: along the Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: River, which is very close to where we were, and
Speaker 1: I was telling her about my platelet donation.
Speaker 2: I said, you know, they called me up and I
Speaker 2: went in and I was just telling her.
Speaker 1: I thought it was really cool that they took the
Speaker 1: blood out and grabbed the platelets and put it back.
Speaker 1: And it was and it took a while, but it
Speaker 1: was it was really kind of a neat experience.
Speaker 2: And she stopped.
Speaker 1: She looked at me, and she says, you know, if
Speaker 1: it wasn't for blood products and platelets, I probably wouldn't
Speaker 1: have survived childhood leukemia and I wouldn't be here. And
Speaker 1: I'd been working with her for a while. I cared
Speaker 1: about her quite a bit, and I so there right
Speaker 1: in front of he was somebody who was a recipient
Speaker 1: of something that I have the ability to give. And
Speaker 1: that was sort of my light bulb moment, saying, maybe
Speaker 1: you should go back in two weeks when you're eligible
Speaker 1: and do it again. So I did, and I started.
Speaker 1: That's kind of what started my I call it now,
Speaker 1: I call it my grateful habit, because it's a habit.
Speaker 3: Now. I think, well, Alex has very lately provided something
Speaker 3: that I think is very interesting. Every two seconds, someone
Speaker 3: in the US needs blood and or platelets. Approximately twenty
Speaker 3: nine thousand units of red blood cells are needed every day,
Speaker 3: every day, twenty nine thousand, and only three percent of
Speaker 3: our population is providing it. And I do know that
Speaker 3: in a mass housery event, they almost always run out
Speaker 3: of blood and the last folks of the hospital die
Speaker 3: because they don't have blood. Sure, just think about that
Speaker 3: next time we have to endure a school shooting or
Speaker 3: some jack doing something horrible. But these mash caasty events,
Speaker 3: they run out of blood.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you can only have so much on hand
Speaker 2: and well and have enough.
Speaker 3: Nearly five thousand units of platelets and sixty five hundred
Speaker 3: units of plasma are needed every day when they pull
Speaker 3: it out of you. How many units is that? You know?
Speaker 3: How many units you give per time?
Speaker 1: So when I donate generally, they'll they'll they'll call it
Speaker 1: a triple. And so to me, I think that's three.
Speaker 1: It can be used by three different people. It's enough
Speaker 1: to be used by three people.
Speaker 3: That means if five thousand units of platelets are needed
Speaker 3: for use a triple, that means we need about seventeen
Speaker 3: hundred donors a day just to meet current demand. That's
Speaker 3: a lot. That's a lot. A single car accident, victim,
Speaker 3: chemical workuire as many as a hundred units of blood.
Speaker 3: Blood and platelets cannot be manufactured. They can only come
Speaker 3: from donors. That's stark if you really think about that
Speaker 3: and understand that you or someone you love will be
Speaker 3: in that position one day. So it puts a face
Speaker 3: to giving platelets. And so you go back and you
Speaker 3: start giving platelets a lot. Interestingly, your undergraduate degree, in
Speaker 3: an odd way, starts to have a place in this
Speaker 3: whole platelet thing for you, kind of because you spent
Speaker 3: four years learning about storytelling and at some point you
Speaker 3: decided storytelling could be part of this journey for you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that kind of get I would say retriggered.
Speaker 1: That's I've got these books on the on the table.
Speaker 1: I don't know whether it was I think it was
Speaker 1: early on in my platelet donating process. This is this
Speaker 1: is before COVID that I started, but just poking around
Speaker 1: and I don't know what it was that made me
Speaker 1: see it. Just stumbled up on this on a Facebook
Speaker 1: page or something. This woman Gracelynn in California and her
Speaker 1: aunt Melody were working on a photo project. Her aunt
Speaker 1: Melody had survived childhood leukemia two and they were building
Speaker 1: a photo project of they wanted to get a hundred
Speaker 1: people who had survived cancer. And that's where this book
Speaker 1: came from. Beyond Remission And it's is that her book. Yes,
Speaker 1: this is their book that they published. It was just
Speaker 1: a photo project at the time, and then they turned it.
Speaker 1: This was the first thing that they published.
Speaker 3: And Melody Lomboy, Melody Lomboy Low and Graceland Bateman yep.
Speaker 3: And it's words of advice for thriving and it's lots
Speaker 3: of stories, small story, small stories with big pictures of
Speaker 3: cancer survivors right.
Speaker 1: Yep, exactly. And this is these are just people in
Speaker 1: their neighborhood, I mean, and around where they live in California.
Speaker 2: So so this I thought it was a cool idea.
Speaker 2: Then I also read what is it?
Speaker 3: What is the purpose bond that book?
Speaker 2: Behind that book?
Speaker 1: The purpose behind that book is like, if you're going
Speaker 1: through cancer, it's it's going to change it alone, it's
Speaker 1: going to change your life. You're not alone, It's exactly it.
Speaker 1: And it's worth celebrating that you're in remission. Not everybody
Speaker 1: gets to that point. Or maybe they do and cancer
Speaker 1: comes back. You should celebrate that you're that you're at
Speaker 1: that point.
Speaker 2: You should, but it's okay to hurt too. You're not alone.
Speaker 2: Other people are going through the same thing that you are.
Speaker 1: So you thought it was a cool I thought it
Speaker 1: was a cool idea, and just it was just a
Speaker 1: little trigger saying maybe I could tell some stories too,
Speaker 1: But it was really it kind of started more going in. Initially,
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, somebody else is out there that's going
Speaker 1: to this stuff, and I started trying to find a
Speaker 1: specific person that I could sit there in the chair,
Speaker 1: pray about, think about and focus on the fact that
Speaker 1: they might need what I've got to give, knowing that
Speaker 1: I can't dedicate it directly to them. Well you never
Speaker 1: know that because it's all because of privacy rules and stuff.
Speaker 3: But somebody while you're sitting there, while I'm sitting there,
Speaker 3: so now, why you're giving platelets.
Speaker 2: I'm using one hand to type my story. I should
Speaker 2: have thought.
Speaker 3: About that, think about maybe somebody you're focusing on actually
Speaker 3: who you might could be helping exactly.
Speaker 1: It's my motivation, motivation and reminder to keep going in.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I go in though and I got to tell
Speaker 1: you it's it's hard sometimes because I might not have
Speaker 1: the energy.
Speaker 2: But that's why I'm glad. It's a habit too.
Speaker 1: And you'll see if you read through my posts every
Speaker 1: once in a while, you'll find one that's like, you
Speaker 1: know what, I don't have a story to but I'm
Speaker 1: still here because somebody needs these things. But over time
Speaker 1: I started to get connected to people that I knew
Speaker 1: that were directly it let people I worked with, but
Speaker 1: also through people like Graceland and Elodie who I've never
Speaker 1: met personally but we're connected and still chat a lot.
Speaker 1: They connected me to other people who had cancer. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of people in here. Some of the
Speaker 1: people in this book I've told a story about or
Speaker 1: shared their shared their experience as part of donating my platelets.
Speaker 1: And I've kind of got there's several goals. One life saving, right,
Speaker 1: It's who wouldn't want to save life. I'm not qualified
Speaker 1: to be an EMT or a doctor or a firefighter
Speaker 1: or anything like that, but I could sit there in
Speaker 1: a chair and have blood taken. Another thing that I
Speaker 1: want to do is honor the person that is going
Speaker 1: through that cancer journey.
Speaker 2: I watch my dad and my mother and I'll go
Speaker 2: through it.
Speaker 1: And I don't know that I fully appreciated at the
Speaker 1: time the amount of work that was for them, and
Speaker 1: for my mom and for Michelle's dad and these people
Speaker 1: and their families. It completely changes your life, and I
Speaker 1: want to spend a little Instagram limits the number of
Speaker 1: characters you can put in right, so I can spend
Speaker 1: a little bit of time honoring their journey at the
Speaker 1: time while still being there in the chair and trying
Speaker 1: to do something worthwhile.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: I was just gonna say.
Speaker 1: My other goal though, is to use that story to
Speaker 1: maybe have somebody say, wow, I'm going through that too,
Speaker 1: or I know somebody who's going through cancer. But the
Speaker 1: main goal is, or the end goal is maybe I
Speaker 1: should try and donate too and give it a try
Speaker 1: like you guys you've tried the first time. Now after
Speaker 1: finding out about it, I'm hoping that there's a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of people out there who said I'll do that.
Speaker 3: I can do that. So you talk to people first
Speaker 3: and hear about their stories, and then just say I
Speaker 3: give platelets. I father out of cancer, my father, I'm
Speaker 3: all ot of cancer. I have very close friends who
Speaker 3: had childhood leukemia that survived cancer, and I want to
Speaker 3: respectfully put your story out there to encourage other people
Speaker 3: to both fight through cancer and those who don't have
Speaker 3: cancer to give.
Speaker 2: That's pretty much. Yet I don't.
Speaker 1: One thing that I consciously don't do is try and
Speaker 1: put myself in the I know what you're going through mode,
Speaker 1: because I don't know what they're going through. But I
Speaker 1: always I never share somebody's story without talking to them first,
Speaker 1: or messaging or whatever.
Speaker 3: So do you have this community now?
Speaker 2: I do? Now?
Speaker 1: I think am up to maybe it's been eight years
Speaker 1: and I've counted somewhere ninety to one hundred different people
Speaker 1: that I've connected to because of these stories, all over
Speaker 1: the country, all over the world. You know people in
Speaker 1: New Zealand and England and other places that talk back
Speaker 1: to me and we share messages. Some it may have
Speaker 1: been a story and then I never heard from them
Speaker 1: again or I didn't reach back out to them, and
Speaker 1: I feel guilty about that as I was going through
Speaker 1: I always I try to type it up and I've
Speaker 1: got a Google doc that I use for it.
Speaker 2: So reading back through those.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, I wonder how Steve's doing, and I
Speaker 1: look back and Steve died two years ago, and it
Speaker 1: made me cry because I don't I wish I could
Speaker 1: keep track of and keeping contact with everyone. Some I'm
Speaker 1: I'm really super close to it and spend a lot
Speaker 1: of time messaging back and forth, sometimes late at night,
Speaker 1: which which Michelle is like, just go to bed, but
Speaker 1: it's so Yeah, it's like a second family to me.
Speaker 1: And I've connected with some really amazing people who are
Speaker 1: inspiring the way that they handle.
Speaker 3: This year, and the followers of family and all of
Speaker 3: that creates kind of this thing you've got online too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so too. I mean it's it's organic.
Speaker 1: I don't go I haven't gone out shouting to the
Speaker 1: world or anything. Look what I'm doing. I just try
Speaker 1: and share it and try to make it about them,
Speaker 1: and it ends up being about me just by default
Speaker 1: because I'm sharing my page. But that's not what I
Speaker 1: wanted to want it to be about them and about
Speaker 1: the need for for people to come in and do this.
Speaker 3: And that concludes part one of my conversations with John Norman,
Speaker 3: and you don't want to miss part two that's not
Speaker 3: available to listen to together. Guys, We can change this country,
Speaker 3: but it starts with you. I'll see you in Part two.