Monday, January 03, 2005

Flowing Blood

I donated blood today. I joined the 5% of Americans who do donate. It was my first time. That was a big thing to the score or so of middle-agers who worked the Red Cross Blood Mobile today. I wasn't supposed to donate blood. But my mom called and found out that I could donate today so ten minutes before she left, she told me that I was going to.

(I must impart at this point that I have an extremely active imagination. It was good I didn't have very long to think about being stuck with a needle (twice!) because I only would have dramatized it mentally. As it was, I had 20 minutes to freak out while they checked me in, etc.)

I was worried about the nurse having to take a sample of my blood to check for iron content. But it wasn't that bad. It was like a thorn quickly catching on your skin. Didn't hurt too bad, and didn't stay hurting.

Next, I sweated over if I had enough iron in my blood. (I really need to eat more veggies!) It didn't pass the 15-second drop test. (She put it in some vial of blue liquid and if it had had enough iron, it would have dropped in less than 15-seconds.) Then she went to swirl it around in some machine that sounded like a blender. It separated my red blood cells from my plasma. If my blood cells were higher than 38, I would pass. Fortunately, I did. On to phase two.

I had to go to the "privacy" table to fill out a confidentiality sheet. There I made my first mistake, but it was an honest one. (No, I didn't look at someone else's sheet!) I was supposed to answer questions 1-39. I was already under the assumption from talking with Mom that half the page was for guys and the other page was for girls. And when the nurse told me to answer to question 39, she pointed at what I assumed was the female side of the page. Therefore, I only answered one half of the page. I probably slowed the whole process down because the male RN who took charge of me next quickly pointed out my mistake and had to leave me alone for 3 minutes so I could answer everything else.

I don't really understand the point of keeping your answers private from the RN's. They see them anyway. But that is the way the system works, so far be it from me to stand in its way.

Then I was lead over the water post where I was made to hastily consume a paper cup full of ice water. (I don't really see the sense in this ritual because I don't think the water would have affected my bloodstream very quickly, but if it works, I'll go for it.)

After downing the ice water, I was lead over to a square of lawn chairs, the type that are longer than your body and recline or sit straight up as desired. Anyway, I was kitty-corner to a very attractive guy who looked to be about 26. He reminded me of Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck. (He had a square jaw, brown eyes, and Ben's hair. Hahaha!)

This time, the person who would be actually drawing my blood was a young, engaged woman. She was witty and cheerful, but slightly sarcastic. Some woman, who was a volunteer, who I had never seen before, informed her that it was my first time donating. She sweetly threatend the young woman that she had better be nice to me.

The next bit passed in a blur. My memory returns very distinctly when she draws out the needle. Yikes that was one big momma of a needle!!!! She told me not to look but I couldn't help myself. I lost it. It was so big and I was concerned that it would hurt really bad. I wouldn't let her insert the needle so she got another lady to try to distract me. Here is where it kind of goes downhill. I didn't need another lady, I didn't want another, I didn't want the extra attention that she drew to my corner of the donation floor. But she came over anyway. She started in on the what I was going to do in the New Year but my sixth sense told me that the needle was getting closer and closer to me skin. (If you slowly move a sharp pencil towards your forehead, right in between the two eyebrows, you will feel a strange tingling sensation, identical to the one I felt at that moment.) I didn't want the element of surprise. I just wanted to prepare myself. So after two hits and miss and practically everyone was looking, (fortunately, the cute guy had left before all this, although if he had stayed I would have probably stood up stronger to the fear) I finally accepted it. And you know what it wasn't that bad.

I filled up my allotted pint-size bag very quickly, since I got big veins from my mom. I was wrapped in sticky red gauze to keep my wound clean and told to keep my needle wound dry. Then the same old lady, who had given my young medical assistant a hard time, came over and held my arm all the way to the cookie table. I felt just fine and not dizzy at all and I felt badly that an old woman who had a broken heel and a leg cast was supposed to be supporting me when I felt that I should be supporting her.

The cookies were good. So was the lemonade. There were two old ladies staffing it and they too had me down two cups of ice water. But this time I actually wanted it.

The whole experience was fine. I wore my "Be nice to me, I gave blood today!" sticker with pride, to teach swim lessons. I had had fun, it was a new experience and I think that next time I will be far better prepared for the needle and I will know to fill both sides of the page and to not wear a long-, tight-sleeved shirt to donate blood. (Although with that bunched up and constricting my blood flow, who needs a blood pressure cuff?)

But overall, I saw that more people need to donate blood, especially with the testimony of the Asian tsunami. Who knows when a tsunami will hit the Northwest Coast and kill and injure hundreds of thousands?
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(God does.)




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