i've been fretting about donating blood for weeks. both the parents have been to the motherland in the last year, so they're out for this round and i'm the only family representative for this surgery (which still may or may not happen on friday).
it's actually been a blessing; it's made me try and have semi-regular eating schedule and remember to take my vitamins. but i was really worried i'd be rejected on a technicality. so paranoid that i fudged one of the questions and my blood pressure dropped to 90/54 (the lowest they accept is 90/50). usually i'm at something like 120/70. my mother says her bp dips when she's nervous, too.
each step was like an obstacle in the gauntlet.
iron level? check
traveling questions? check
personal history questions? check
unfortunately, i found out there's a practical reason for some of the nitpicky questions. when i said 'go ahead and take as much as you legally can' and lied about my weightclass, i didn't realize that would mean that after 3 minutes i'd wilt like an eight-day rose and need to be swathed in icepacks, have a fan on me at full blast and a loud too-many-cigarettes-voiced lady in my face calling, 'just keep your eyes open, honey!'
the blood guy had to cut me off a little early. i felt like i'd let the team down.
but he said i still gave a lot and that it'll help. i really liked his manner. he brought me icepacks and juice and came back during his lunchbreak to see if i was okay. he was just the kind of guy you'd almost tolerate sticking a shovel-sized needle into the crook of your arm.
all in all it was a painless procedure, and i got to wear a sticker all day that says, 'be nice to me, i gave blood.'
but that was just a practice run; next time i'll come out of there like a champ.
Still don't understand how you can forget to eat! You need to take care of yourself, crackhead.
ReplyDeleteI commend you for facing it like a champ....I hate needles!
i give blood regularly. its good karma.
ReplyDeletethanks, pimp. :) i guess my blood guy wasn't as good as i had thought; i took off the band-aid this morning to reveal a pool of blackened blood under the skin and track marks. i was wondering why it hurt that much. thank god it's cold -- i wore long sleeves -- otherwise my coworkers would think i'm on heroin.
ReplyDeleteeating has always been sort of a social activity. my mom used to invite the neighbor kids over for lunch just so i'd eat something because i couldn't be bothered with it otherwise. i just don't feel hungry until i'm sitting with the food in front of me.
I give blood constantly, however the first time I did it, no one indicated to me that a feeling a slight discomfort was not normal.
ReplyDeleteI had a pain in the donating arm the whole time. I didn't object to the pain, being male and all.
For the next two weeks I had a giant bruise that extended the entire length of my arm. I rang them to ask if it were normal, and they told me I should have informed them of my discomfort.
Thanks for telling me NOW...!
oh man. were you okay?
ReplyDeletei have some discomfort still and a bruise, but nothing as bad at that sounds.
Of all the times I’ve given blood, the only time I bruised was when I didn’t squeeze the little stress reliever thing enough to keep the vain nice and wide open. I’m kind of weird about it though, I have to watch them put the needle in, if I didn’t, I don’t know what would happen, but they always think it’s weird and tell me to look away, but I can’t. Have you ever given platelets? That takes about an hour and half to two hours. I was about half way done when I had to pee so bad… but they can’t take you off the machine until you are done, so that probably qualifies as the most agonizing 45 minutes of my life… so a little too much info… anyway… hope you’re feeling better, and I hope all goes well for you brother : )
ReplyDeleteYeah cadiz, I'm okay. But it was hard to even sleep at night because I would roll over onto my arm, and this harsh, dull ache would shoot up my arm, and then linger for a few minutes.
ReplyDeleteIt was awful..