Cliff
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Posts posted by Cliff
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Thanks, it's always scary when I recommend we stop doing something and it's nice to hear confirmation that others are doing it the same way I propose.
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Our clinical program does an informed consent of the HPC donor prior to them coming to collections. We also do a watered down consent with the donor on the day of collection.
We are not AABB accredited for stem cell collections / processing - only FACT, TJC and FDA. If part of our process is to ensure we have a copy of the informed consent for collection on file (from days or weeks prior), do we need to consent the donor on the day of donation? I can't find a rule that says we do.
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Sorry for the delay, while I was away I only had my tablet and no access to pics. Then we got home late yesterday.
So, on August 20, 2016 I rode my bike to the top of Mt. Washington.
The day started out just perfect, the weather was a little cool, silly me, I put on a base layer. That only made it to about mile 2. The gearing I had on my bike was a single chainring at 22 and a cassette of 11-36. It should have been more than enough to get me up. I wanted to ride a little to warm up before the climb, but the top speed on this thing is 14 pedaling. I rode up and down the street out front for about 5 miles and pulled in to the start right before my group.
Me with my numbered helmet and time chipped bike, sadly saying goodbye to my wife. She needed to drive to the top before the start. The road is closed to cars during the ride. Cool new jersey (silly base layer).
Here's a pic from the start a few minutes before my group left.
Sorry, no more pics until I get to the top, stopping to get nice photos was pretty far from my mind.
I'm a pretty open book, so most of you know I have significant bladder issues. It makes being active really hard. I only sleep 30 minutes to an hour at a time so I never feel rested before an event. Sometimes the issue intensifies for a week or so, lucky me, this was the week. The pain was pretty bad the day before and I had hoped that was the worst of it. It wasn't. The day of the ride was the worst for this cycle. I stopped about 4 or 5 times to pee, by the time I got to the top I was peeing a fair amount of blood. Being in pain like that made the ride a little harder.
So, anyhow, I hit climb and felt OK. Heart rate went to around 160 - 175 and stayed there for the whole ride, I was hoping for a little lower as 170 is really my max for a short effort. The first mile went well, by mile 2 I was pretty overheated so I took off the base layer. Mile 3 through 5 were wearing me down. I took a little breather around mile 4 and honestly thought of giving up. It takes a lot to make me quit, but this hill is a lot. I pushed on to mile 5 and hit the dirt part of the ride. It's about a mile of really hard packed dirt, not much different than the road. Sadly I walked this mile. Not because it was dirt, but more because it was probably between 15 and 18% and nearly killing me. While walking my bike my heart rate was 160, it was that hard for me. What I found a little funny, was the swearing I heard from others. There were a lot of dropped chains and even a couple of snapped chains. There was no help on the hill, only at the very bottom before the start. I've trained myself to never shift under pressure, I don't think everyone else did.
At mile 6 I got back on. It was all downhill after this - if you think of 12 - 22% as downhill. Since I was now at mile 6 and less than 2 miles from the finish, I could hear the crowds cheering people on. This was very motivating. Quitting was even less of an option now. I tried my best to ride slow so I could finish. After the ride my wife told me of people who just stopped at the final climb and fell over, gave up and walked or started crying. I've been up this road before on foot so I knew what lie ahead.
The last 1/2 mile was not as flat as I remembered from the run. I was beyond exhausted by this point. Since I was so slow most of the other riders were already at the top, plus all of the people watching. It's really hard to describe how supportive they all were, it honestly brings tears of joy to my eyes even now thinking of it. When you start the final climb (22%) people are calling out your name (it's on your number) and telling you things like you got this, keep going, you can do it. This was a really steep hill.
Here's a pic (from my wife) to show the crowd and the final part of the climb.
Here's me at the flat part just before the finish line.
Me with my blankey and participant medal.
Me with my wicked pissa bike.
Some pretty cool guy from Canada that we gave a ride down to. He had no idea what to expect so he brought his bike with standard gearing. He made it!
So I finished. The results are here. My official time was 2:25:55, 502 out of 538 finishers. Garmin moving time was 2:05. Garmin file. Not sure how many dropped out. The rest of the pics are here.
Will I do it again next year, possibly. If I do, it will be under the guidance of a coach who's only training goal is to get me to climb faster.
I want to thank my mechanic for setting my bike up so that I had 100% confidence I would not have a mechanical. Most important, I thank my wife. She is my biggest fan, supporter and cheerleader. I love her more than she knows.
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Welcome
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This is my fifth time doing the ride for Angels. The first time was one of the shorter rides, either the 40 or more likely the 20. Then I did the 100 a few times, then last year I tried again with my wife, but we (she) had a little accident near the beginning (she's fine).
This year I plan to ride the 100 again. Angel Flight is a great organization, please consider a generous donation.
See this link for more info on Angel Flight.
Use this link to donate. Please enter Cliff as the rider name, I'm the only one. Any amount is truly appreciated.
If you prefer not to donate online, I also attached their form so you can mail in a donation, it will be credited to my account.
2016 Ride for Angels Donation Forms (1).docThank you
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I'm afraid to say. I'm a compliance person for a large blood bank / donor center. I have two people that work in just compliance. We also have lab compliance and two other compliance people that work there.
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Thanks David. We have a bunch of electronic thermometers and the tips cost a little bit. The TempaDot would be more, but if we add in the initial cost of the electronic thermometer and the probe that needs to be replaced every now and then, we think the TempaDot might save money. We'll never outdate them, we'd use at least 10,000 a year, probably a lot more.
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We have not washed platelets before on the Cobe, do you do it in a closed system? As you pointed out, it's a 4 hour product, regardless of it being closed. When we pooled platelets and pooled cryo we never did sterility QC.
I would not think a sterility check would be required.
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One of our administrators asked us to look into these. Does anyone use them for patients / donors?
What do you do for QC? Would you be willing to share your validation plan?
Thanks
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Welcome
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Welcome
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This required a change to the setup of the server. The server will need to be restarted. That will happen overnight tonight, then the search index will need to be rebuilt, that will happen during the day tomorrow. Hopefully by tomorrow afternoon you'll be able to search for 3 letter words.
Thanks
- Malcolm Needs and amym1586
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That's very nice of you Mabel. I too have been on the list for many years, I guess I never expect to get called, but would be happy if I did.
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I wondered if Brits celebrated this, maybe as good riddance day.
- John C. Staley, goodchild and amym1586
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Last Saturday I ran up the Mt Washington auto road. In July I will do a cycling century riding around it, then in August I will ride my bike up the auto road.
Here are a few details of the run.
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So, admittedly I was getting a little freaked out about the weather. The week up to the run temps were I the 20s and 30s, several inches of snow, freezing rain and winds averaging 50 mph with gusts in the 90s. Those are far past the conditions for which they would simply cancel the race. If it were in the 20s or 30s alone the race would go on. I was not prepared for those temps.
The day before the run was beautiful. The forecast for Saturday was also perfect, I started to relax a little. Dawn and I went to pick up my number the night before, I also wanted to check the place out. I’ve driven up Mt Washington many times, but this was my first race of any kind ever. It was a pretty big deal. The starting banner was set up the night before.
I got my number, not sure how I scored such a low number, but I was happy to have an actual race number.
The morning of the race I was again concerned about the weather. Predicted 40s at the top, while not cold, it’s colder than I would run in just shorts and a shirt. I had on a compression shirt (love that thing) a cycling jersey (for those that run and don’t cycle, these are cool as they have pockets), tights and shorts. I was also planning on carrying a sweatshirt tied around my waist. I changed my mind an took off the tights and left the sweatshirt behind. Once Dawn headed up the mountain, no turning back. I walked around for almost 2 hours (cars had to head up very early) and started to get a little chilled. Clearly I need to HTFU.
While I was waiting I met George Etzweiler. Really cool guy, his 11th time running it. He’s 96! They are pretty good about giving him a bib with his age.
Finally the race was about to start. Again, I’ve never been in anything like this, so it was all really pretty cool to me. They had us all line up at the banner, the people that were expected to win / place well were in the front. A few minutes of talking, some words from our sponsor, a singing of the national anthem, sounding of the cannon and off we went. All 1140 of us.
The first mile we all stayed together. Some of the fast people obviously went ahead, but the rest of us lumbered along. By mile 2 I was happy with my decision to leave the clothes, I was soaked with sweat. At this point I was still running. By mile 3 it was a mix of walking running. I took off the compression shirt and stuffed it in one of my jersey pockets. It was soaked. I was trying really hard to drink as much as I could. My breathing and heartrate were too high to sustain. This is when the walking started. It was mostly running until mile 5, then it switched to mostly walking, running when I could.
I am also doing the bike ride in August, that is going to be a lot harder. At least with the run I can stop, or walk. There is no comparable option with the bike, it’s go or stop. On a hill like that there is no starting again once you’ve stopped. So the whole run I was saying, this section will be hard, but not too bad. This section will be really hard and about all that I can manage. Uh oh, this section is probably harder than I can handle, what will I do? I had to stop doing that and focus on the run.
By mile 6 I knew I still had a long way to go, but I was convinced I’d make it. By mile 7 you could see the top, then you turn a corner and you can see the observatory. I knew I was close, and I knew I had someone who loved me and was cheering me on waiting. I am very lucky.
The end is a brutal 22%. I was mostly walking at this point but needed to make a good show of it and tried my best to run that hard part. The crowds cheering you on really helped, but it was more than I could do. I ran most of the 22% hill, walked for a little, than ran across the finish line. 2 hours 17 minutes. 910 out of 1140, clearly no record, but I wasn’t last.
Actually the guy in last was pretty special, it was George, he finished! He’s 96. His son and grandson started with him, not sure if they finished.
At the top they packed the cars in like sardines, Dawn said it looked like a scene from the Walking Dead.
I got my participant trophy. The blanket was nice, I was pretty overheated and the air was cool.
Then the best part. I haven’t had a soda in almost a year. I love soda.
So there it is, the hardest physical event I have done (to date). Will I do it again? Possibly. At lunch with Dawn yesterday I suggested she do it next year. She didn’t say I was nuts. She’s thinking about it. If she decides to do it I will start training this fall for a run that is next summer. I want to run the whole distance next time.
As far as winning, I feel like I won. I have a lot of respect for Mt Washington. I’m saying Man 1: Mountain 0, but suspect it’s more of a draw at this point. Next up is the century around it next month, then the ride up it in August. -
Wow, you're on the east coast now, correct?
Congrats on the new position.
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- In the past 12 months have you seen a doctor for evaluation or treatment for an illness or injury?
- . In the past 72 hours have you taken any medications including over the counter medications?
- In the past 48 hours have you been to a dentist or do you currently have any incomplete dental work?
- In the past 4 weeks, have you been in any of the areas listed on Form #16-04 “Donor Self-Deferral Information Sheet to Reduce the Risk of Transfusion-Transmitted Zika”?
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32 minutes ago, goodchild said:
I like how your document control system gives generated documents a single day expiration date. I wish ours would do something similar.
Thanks, it's a homegrown document management system I built for our website. We decided on Word docs as compared to pdf's. It's a simple date field that updates to the date opened.
We are looking at other systems, like Master Control or Title21. They will embed the date into the pdf each time it's opened.
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Yay! Very happy for you.
I have almost 20 years to go.
Mt. Washington Hillclimb - I think I've lost my mind again
in Off Topic
Posted
That sounds like a dare.