Stick Me!

Yeah, that's right. I saved three lives aka gave blood yesterday.

Was I nervous? That's up for interpretation. I went to the drive at my previously scheduled time at 8:15, filled out the necessary forms (no, I'm not being forced by the mafia to give blood; no, I haven't sold my services for money; no, I didn't travel to Africa and get AIDS), and got in line. I felt fine- perhaps a little anxious. But no hyperventilation, because I had given blood before.

Correction, I have tried. Over the summer my church had a blood drive, and so I went. Long story short, it was not a success. They poked one arm and got some blood, but then the flow stopped. They tried to make it go again by twisting and adjusting the needle in my arm, but no luck; they had to take it out. But I was a trooper! "Do you want us to try the other arm?" they asked. "Sure!" I replied. I had already been stuck once, why not twice? Still, same problem. But I thought they would still tell me my blood type, at least. But no; I left the drive without the warm feelings of giving back and with long bruises up and down my arms. Though I did get some cookies out of the deal.

Yesterday, I vowed for things to be different. I drank an ungodly amount of water the day before to pump up my veins and avoided sick people like they were the plague. But when the woman took my blood pressure, iron levels, and pulse rate, my pulse was too high. "Hmm..your pulse is a little high, so we'll just take it again when you go and sit down in your chair." My thoughts: 'WHAT?! No. My pulse cannot be too high. I HAVE to calm down right now or else I can't give blood. CALM DOWN!' Needless to say, that didn't help. I had to come back later to give it another go.

When I came back and got back in line, March of the Penguins was playing. The blood drive nurses told me that they had had too many high pulses that day. What better way to calm people down than watching waddling penguins with the narration of Morgan Freeman? And it worked- my pulse was under 100 beats per minute!

To finish briefly, they stuck me, said I had weird, squiggly veins, and that my flow was really slow. But it kept flowing! I managed to fill up the whole blood bag without passing out, ate a cookie (despite my Lenten resolution, but I didn't want to die or anything so decided God would understand), and went back to class.

Yay for giving blood! If you haven't YOU should give it a shot. Are you eligible? Check it out.