My first post on the relocated blog, and in truth, I wish it left me under happier circumstances.
Both the girlfriend and myself are experiencing considerable health problems, compounded with some insidious behavior from several sources.
I will spare you the details, but will note that one of the “lighter” incidences in the last week was a cat giving birth, then rejecting and trying to kill its kittens!
Luckily one of the other cats stepped up and the kittens are now safe and doing well.
The other cat had decided it wanted to give birth while wandering around the house, often trailing a kitten still attached by its umbilical cord. Blood and other secretions were left around the house, which was not conducive to finding new tenants for vacant rooms.
This situation reminded me of a piece of knowledge that is not as widely known as it deserves.
In the past, I have been called upon to clean clotted blood from scientific equipment. Often these clots were within very narrow tubing. Anything that would fit down the tubing had insufficient strength to break up the dried blood.
The movie “Carrie” was on last night, so the fates seem to be telling me it was time I passed this knowledge on.
The solution (literally!) is 0.9% (isotonic) saline.
Nine grams of common table salt/sodium chloride dissolved in a litre of tap water. Or 0.9g in 100mls, 4.5g in 500mls, or any variation of such.
One advantage of using isotonic saline is that it will dissolve clotted blood without causing further lysis of the blood cells, and releasing the pigment.
A friend of mine once got blood on his jeans and asked on facebook how he should remove it.
Luckily for him I responded first and told him about isotonic saline.
There then followed numerous other suggestions, many of them exotic or expensive, several of which that would have marked or destroyed his jeans.
This was a nice example of what is so often bad about social media.
My friend used saline, and his jeans survived.