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On Thursday this past week I went for my 131st donation of a blood product, this time plasma.

Both my systolic and diastolic were a bit high, but lower than they had been on previous recent readings, so that's good. My pulse at 79 bpm was quite high; normally it is around 71. And finally my temperature was ever so slightly lower than normal, where I am usually 36.5C.

I go every other Thursday after work and usually, but not always, there is a 30 something aged Chinese ancestry nurse with whom I have conversations. We are both bilingual but oppositely so - I am primarily English speaking with passable French and she is primarily French speaking with passable English. So our conversation flips back and forth between the two languages.

She has two kids, aged six and eight, their grandmother picks them up on Thursdays since she is working.

She has worked at a few different Hema-Quebec blood donation spots and happened to mention on this occasion that she really likes the clientele (the donors) who come to this Kirkland permanent donation place. That was nice to hear. 

The Hema-Quebec nurses are doing what they can as essential service workers who are striking to force Hema-Quebec to give them better pay and working conditions. It is mostly the pay they are after as they are ~3$ per hour less than hospital counterparts. Next week there is a mobile blood drive at the Bell Centre where some of the Canadiens players shuffle around all of the donors throughout the day. These nurses wanted to plan a strike that day, especially at that event; where striking means simply that for an hour in the midst of the day they cease working. It would be great if they could succeed in doing this to get the media attention they need, but she told me it was in the courts; that a judge would decide if they were permitted to strike at that event.