Plasma Misconception

I was donating plasma and thinking about when I first heard about plasma donation. I was about ten and heard about someone who was donating plasma. Immediately interested in the topic, I asked what plasma was. The adult who explained it to me asked if I had ever gotten a rug burn, and I said yes. She said that the clear or yellowish fluid that comes to the top of a rug burn is plasma.

I pondered this for a moment, and wondered how plasma would be extracted from the donor. I figured that there would be a sand-paper person to rub the donor down with sandpaper until their was a rug-burn-type injury, then scrape off the plasma that collected at the top of the wound and collect it in a small dish.

Luckily, this is not the process that I have to go through to donate plasma. I leave the donation center with only a small puncture in one arm. Besides that, I get $30, juice, and crackers. Life is good.