We had been engrossed in a conversation for quite a while now, the atmosphere was charged with agitations and counter statements. It was one of those friendly arguments where there was free reign of statistics, Google and Wikipedia coming handy from time to time. It was exhaustive and exhausting all in search for superior argument. You know how these things could go sometimes.
So we decided to call it quits: no victor nor vanquished, the journey still needing another two hours to be completed. You know that awkward silence after an elaborate argument where you are deciding if another raised topic would brand you a chatterbox or solitude encroacher. Yes! That was where we were when the question jumped off my mouth.

“What is your blood group?”, “eeerrrrrrmmmm. . . .eeerrrrmmmm. . . I think iiiittttt’s AA,” she stuttered with a countenance of uncertainty needing validation. Friends, I was as surprised as I was shocked. This was because if she knew a lot, then personal information like this should be subconscious knowledge. I told her the story of the six year old boy whose parents rushed him to the hospital severely anemic and couldn’t even raise cash to buy a pint of blood seeing that he needed urgent transfusion. A colleague volunteered to donate blood but getting the child's blood sample was quite a challenge and before a blood test could be done for him he was already in the great beyond. Also that if that child’s parents had known his blood group with certainty and proofs then the child’s life could have been salvaged.
“ Annabel, a blood type also called a blood group is a classification of blood based on the presence or absence of inherited antigenic substances on the surface of red blood cells. Some of these antigens are also present on the surface of other types of cells of various tissues. Several of these red blood cell surface antigens collectively form a blood group system.”

I went ahead to explain that antigens are substances that trigger the body’s immune system to fight against foreign substance present be it bacteria, fungi and viruses. So also with blood that if the blood transfused a person contains antigens the recipients body recognizes as foreign, then chances are that such would go down with what is known as transfusion reaction (the body fighting against the transfused blood). And as such, a process intended to save a life boomerangs. I had to explain the ABO blood grouping system to her and how that some folks could be belong to group A, B, AB, or O. Schooling an adult on some medical knowledge could be likened to teaching a grade two pupil calculus. sharing the knowledge was worthwhile though.

Friend, that was my blood group chit chat story, the big question being, “what is YOUR blood group?” You can walk into any ISO accredited laboratory facility (Pathcare and the likes) to determine your blood group.