I’m about to go to the hospital to receive 2 units of blood, because I’m dangerously low on something (red cells?) .
It’s not my first time, but I always wondered, how does the body have space for an extra litre of blood in your system? What happens to the veins? Do they just stretch out a bit to accommodate? Also, what about having too much of other stuff after this? Like plasma? I am so confused by how all of this works.
I do know that there must be a way for the body to balance itself out afterwards, as usually I need to urinate quite badly afterwards 😅
Please help make light of this, I am not looking forward to being stabbed again ( I have extremely hard veins to find) and I need the distraction, and the answer!
Thank you !
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>I do know that there must be a way for the body to balance itself out afterwards, as usually I need to urinate quite badly afterwards 😅
That’s literally it – excess fluid is filtered by the kidneys and released as urine. Your spleen acts as a reserve and can hold a little bit extra blood, but otherwise the water (vast majority of the blood volume) is purged while the goodies (RBCs, platelets, whatever you’re missing) stay behind.
This is also why sometimes if you get really cold you have to pee. Your body clamps down on your extremities blood vessels and forces everything to your core, which becomes overfilled and purges excess fluid to compensate.
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