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I haven’t been much of a blood donor. I was over 30 the first time I donated. I did not have a good experience.
It took almost thirty minutes to get a pint of blood out of my body (this is much, much longer than average). The 60 year old cyclist next to me was done in a few minutes. The attendants attributed this to his excellent physical fitness. This made him feel great and made me feel like crap: Could I possibly be that out of shape? Worst of all, towards the end they started saying I might have to give up. As in: if you don’t fill up the plastic bag, we can’t use any of your blood because it has already mixed with the chemicals in the bag which are dosed for a full pint. I started squeezing the rubber ball like crazy. I did manage to fill the bag. The only problem was, I then got up to go and couldn’t see anything. I felt ready to greet death. It was as though my blood pressure had fallen through my shoes. Cookies, water and time fully revived me, but it took a while, and it was not a good experience.
Fast forward a couple of years and I timidly tried again. This time I was rejected as a donor after going through the whole rigamarole: signing in, questionnaire, interview, finger prick, everything, and then: are you allergic to iodine? Why yes, I am. They weren’t prepared with any iodine free preps. End of show. I was both annoyed and extremely relieved.
So, this time when the blood drive sign-ups came around, I signed up. Out of guilt. And out of cynicism. They would probably waste thirty minutes of my time and then send me home again. Only they didn’t. They had iodine free preps and they were interested in my iron-rich, disease free, in high demand, O+ blood. I was convinced that it would be another horrible experience. My optimism did not increase when the phlebotomist asked my neighbor to trade chairs with me because he didn’t like the looks of the vein in my right arm. Oh dear. . .
But the needle poke was not worse than the marker they used to highlight the vein. (Adam: you are as good a phlebotomist as you bragged that you were. Well done.). Still, I knew I wasn’t at the end of the tunnel. I started squeezing my ball and counting between squeezes. The attendants quickly decided that they had a loon and a probable fainter on their hands (good guessers). They tried to explain to me that it didn’t need to be exactly five seconds between squeezes. But they were clearly people who don’t understand the comfort of a little rhythmic counting, nor my fear of squeezing either too little or too much.
To my astonishment, I finished off my pint in under seven minutes! I beat Pdad! Has chasing Kate improved my physical fitness that much or did I just get a really crummy poke the first time? The latter seems more likely. I was just a bit woozy afterwards–probably more out of fear of possible future wooziness rather than anything else. I quickly recovered.
And then I felt proud! And excited! Coward Donates Blood and SURVIVES! Read all about it! I was ready to buy every last bit of Red Cross propaganda (and still am, I suppose). I am a hero! I may have saved a life today! I did something really hard for me to help someone else. Yea me!
I am thankful that I am eligible to donate–according to this study, only 37% of us are, and just a fraction of those actually donate–and healthy enough to go ahead with it. I am blessed and I am thankful to be able to share a tiny bit of that blessing with others.
I can donate blood again May 8. If you are eligible, when will you donate next?
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4 Responses to “I gave blood and I didn’t die”
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I am ineligible. I always says it’s because I am underweight (rimshot). But really its because I had hepatitis in 5th grade. Along with the mono. No, I don’t remember which kind. But I’m sure I was innocently infected.
And it’s too bad. Becaue in conjunction with the aforementioned illness I got very used to giving blood. I am a champ. Only they don’t want mine. Sad, really.
Congrats on a good donation. I’m a “frequent flyer” as they say. I’m O- (the universal donor) so they hit me up every 13 weeks. I accidentally donated when I was pregnant in December because I didn’t know yet, but I’m sure they’ll figure that out down the line. I wish more people would do it–giving blood is awesome! I really do it for the Lorna Doone cookies, though!
As a fellow O+, I thank you for your contribution to the blood supply, should I ever need it. I haven’t given blood in quite some time, more because I’m just not exposed to the opportunity to do so than anything else. I also have a hard time with veins–every time I’ve gone in to the hospital to have a baby and had to get an IV, they have had to poke me ten or twenty times in each arm before they were able to get the darn thing in. The backs of my hands and the insides of my elbows were black and blue. That was almost more traumatic than actually giving birth! I did give a few times in college, though, and it wasn’t all that traumatic. So, if I ever actually hear of a blood drive going on again, I’ll sign up this time.
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