Be nice to me!

...I tried to give blood today. In high school, they always handed out stickers to people who went to the blood drives...those that said "Be nice to me, I gave blood today" and "I tried to give blood today." If the Indiana Blood Center gave out similar stickers, I would have received the second.

A few people from my department at work organized a blood-donation outing. 3 of us carpooled down and a few other people drove themselves at intervals throughout the day to donate blood. I saw this as my opportunity to finally do what I had been meaning to do since I was 15. Something has always kept me from donating...in high school it was not weighing enough...through college it was usually a combination of blood drives happening on days of tests, days of planned allnighters and busy activities, and just not hearing about them until 10 minutes before they closed. Today would be my day. Although I was slightly afraid, it would be okay, and I would save a life. Really, there's no legitimately good reason not to give blood, unless you have hepatitis or something. I was finally able to stop giving excuses and just do it. And I'd get free cookies!! How could it go wrong?

I do the whole questionnaire thing, they take my pulse and blood pressure (pulse is slightly high, mostly because I'm nervous...but still in the realms of normal), prick my finger to take a tiny blood sample, and then I sit in the big comfy seat and they stick the gigantic needle in my arm. Now, when I say gigantic needle, I actually have no reference for this. I did not look at this needle ... I didn't want to. But based on the size of hole it left in my arm, I assume it was pretty gigantic. He gives me a little stress ball thingy to squeeze, and I sit back and take a sigh of relief because the worst is over and now all I have to do is squeeze the ball and eat cookies after it's all done. Not a bad day.

Unfortunately, the stress ball thingy didn't work, and my blood stopped flowing within 2 minutes. The nurse came back, wriggled the needle a little bit (eep), and then said, "well, you're done." Que? I am pretty sure a pint of blood didn't disappear from my veins in the past 2 minutes... But by "done" he meant "we're not going to get any more of your blood to come out, so we're not even going to try." He suggested that I drink lots of water for the entire week before I donate next and that would help my blood flow better. I was worried...am I unhealthy? Is my blood unusually slow-moving? My blood pressure was average, so I must have been dehydrated...even though I drank 8 glasses of water that morning.

My intern friend who was sitting next to me finishes within a few minutes and needs to spend some time on the floor with her feet raised because she feels dizzy. My coworker who organized this outing is done last, and says that he thinks the nurse might have just missed my vein causing the blood to flow oddly and unefficiently. Who knows. But either way, I was stuck with 2 needles today, my left arm is bruised and swollen still, and I didn't even donate any blood. Maybe I'll try again later.