Giving Blooooood

Couldn’t think of anything else to blog about, and since my *brand new* blog looked pretty empty, I decided to write about whatever came into my mind

So I gave blood today. I was super-nervous before I went and I even took Jolly Ranchers in my pocket and Mtn Dew with me for afterwards (I e-ordered them and they arrived just before I left – great timing! Made me in a better mood for giving blood)… I was really scared, because I have never donated before and I knew it was gonna hurt, but I didn’t know how much…

As is the norm with humans, I feared the unknown.

So anyway, I walked in there and gave in the form I’d received in the post/mail… I should probably tell you that I registered last time I went – right before I was told I couldn’t give blood because I’d had a cold, which I guess I did make it sound a little worse than it was because I was too scared to give blood that day…

Moving on, I handed in my form and took the cup of water and waited for the lady to come and get me. She checked my form with me-there’s all these health requirements, and stuff, like you have to inform them of whether you’ve been travelling outside the UK in the last six months… And absent mindedly I’d opted for “No” on a question only meant to be answered by men-the lady made my sign my initials by it, and she crossed it out! Do I look like a man? Do my forms say I’m a man? No. So clearly it wouldn’t take a genious to work out that I had ticked that box when I shouldn’t have, so why do they need me to give my signature for that?? Weirdos.

So then the woman took blood from my finger and, using a pipette, dropped a teeny bit into a tube with some blue liquid to test whether I was anaemic. It was pretty cool watching my blood float down the tube in a weird blob, instead of looking all runny like when you cut yourself… But yeah, that test proved I’m not anaemic…

And then the scary part… I waited to be called to a bed, and then another woman put one of those odd miniature rubber-rings around my arm and let it expand and put pressure on my arm so they could look for a vein. I’m right handed so she did this to my left, which turned out to be not good enough, because they couldn’t find a “good enough” dang vein and had to do this on my right arm to find a better vein… Nearly made my hand go numb with the pressure the second time!

By this time I was making awkward conversation and giggling nervously at things which were hardly even funny… All this messing around, and no blood removal! I just wanted it to hurry up! And i got that wish-she proceeded to stab me with the needle, which I looked away for, squeezing my eyes shut and holding my mum’s hand with my left one. The initial pain was VERY… uh, “not nice” shall we say… But after that, I wasn’t so bad, and I was able to settle for staring at the high ceiling of the church which the BloodBank was being held in, holding my breathe, with a tight chest. The pain eased up some more and I was so relieved! I chatted to my mum and promptly got bored at around halfway through. I had to sit through ANOTHER 7 1/2 minutes of tingly hand, gentle numbness and the required opening and closing of my hand…

And then came removing the needle-man I was worried about that!

No way near as bad as I thought, and not as bad as insertion, the removal was barely noticeable. Another lady, who I’d chatted to during the blood-sucking process, told be it was time to stop, andpulled the tape off my arm, and applied pressure to a point just above the needle, which hurt. I didn’t look, and just chatted about whatever it was that me, mum and her were chatting about, and then all of a sudden there was a cotton bud on my arm and the lady was telling me to apply pressure over the cotton bud with three fingers! I hadn’t even noticed her take it out! When I asked her if that was it, she replied jokingly “I’m afraid it was. Sorry it wasn’t more exciting for you.”!

And that was it! How anti-climactic?!

So then she left to do the same with another patient, and a man came over and put the plaster on, while I questioned him about with they use blood from veins, which are the ones that carry blood without oxygen, when it would be more useful to the transfuse-ees to have blood already with oxygen in it. He didn’t know. Which to be honest seemed a little bit lame for a blood-taking-dude… Anyways, he told me to slowly and gently get off the bed and go over to the table with refreshments and get some juice and cookies, which I did happily, helping myself to chocolate “BourbonCream”s and a few stickers: one that says “be nice to me, I gave blood today” and one about giving your first blood donation, and a car sticker: “Save a life, give blood today”.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad experience. I may save someone’s life, prevent disease and increase well-being… And I had an excuse not to do anything “strenuous” like exercise, or heavy lifting, or difficult chores all day… And an excuse to whine like a soldier with a battle-wound if I wanted

So yeah, I’m glad I did it, and as soon as the lady asked, I booked my appointment for my next donation. I thoroughly recommend donating blood. It’s a brilliant and easy way to help someone and make a difference. The workers are all really, really grateful for you being there, and I think the person receiving your blood will be grateful too And so what if you hurt a little? Isn’t that better than someone dying. If for every time I donated blood, I saved a life, I would do it daily if I could. But I can’t, I can only do it quarterly, which is why you should consider donating blood too.

Only 5% of those who actually can give blood, do.

That’s a pitiful one person in every twenty. Doesn’t that suck?

So make a difference. Be that one special person, loving, giving and Good enough to save a life. Give blood today.

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