In the past, I had been excluded from donating because of my time spent in Denmark in the 80s. I was told a while ago that they had changed some of their restrictions so I checked online and realized I was no longer "blacklisted".
The last time they had a blood drive in the area I was unable to attend due to childcare issues and an evening meeting. Friday I happened to drive by the sign alerting me to a blood drive being held at my church today and figured I would do my best to get there. After dinner was finished and the girls were in the midst of their bedtime routine I left Rick in charge and headed off to church.
I have actually given blood samples on numerous occasions - a large percentage of them during my traumatic experience with an ectopic pregnancy back in 2004 - but I had never before donated a large quantity of blood. I found it was not really that much different from giving blood samples except that they ask you a bazillion questions, check your vitals (I had a respectable 13.8 for my iron test, a pulse of 60 bpm, and blood pressure of 98 over 66) and the time to actually give the blood is obviously longer. I think it took about 10 minutes to get a full bag o' blood out of me.
I felt no ill effects once all was said and done. I was required to sit at the 'snack table' with the other recent donors - some of whom were fellow church-goers - for about 15 minutes before I was allowed to leave. But it went well and now I'm no longer a blood-donation virgin! It was quick and relatively painless and it feels good to know that I've given to the community in a meaningful way. If you are an eligible blood donor and have not given blood recently I urge you to do so. Let those 'vampires' suck your blood this Halloween season. They will thank you for it and you might even walk away with a cool T-shirt like the one I got tonight!
5 comments:
Congrats!! And I am so loving the shirt--It is well deserved!! :) Hugs to you,
--snow
That's great, Jeanne!
Congratulations. The shirt is very cute.
One time, they gave me a water bottle made of red Nagalene that looked like an IV. It was creepy.
In the Boston area in the Spring and Summer, each pint gives you an entry in a drawing for Red Sox tickets!
Once you're in the system, they'll call you every other month or so, and help you schedule the appointments. It makes a HUGE impression on your kids, when they see you doing this.
P.S. May you always be a donor, and never a recipient!
Cool Bloody Beans!!! Way to go! I was pretty proud of my "virgin donor" shirt too. Mine was a M*A*S*H one and I love it! The drawing they had at mine was to get the boxed set of the show series on DVD. I would have SOOO loved to have won that! But I didn't- but that's okay, because they got blood and that's what counts.
Gotta love that about-to-fall-over camera angle, too. Was my R there taking the picture for you?!? ;-)
~TuxB
WTG! I've yet to go this year. Love the shirt! Looks like A was your photographer huh!?!
Lisa
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