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sarea
While I'm sitting around waiting for my DVD to finish burning, I thought it might be a good time to update LJ. Because I successfully donated blood today!!! But there's a story. There's always a story.
Yes, tres exciting.
A few weeks ago, I had gotten the call to go in and donate, and I explained my terrible experiences from before. She agreed that if I encountered the same problems this time, I shouldn't try and donate anymore.
One of the things they told me to do was to drink a lot of water the day before, so that my veins would be extra puffy (that's not the right word, but it's 1am and can't be bothered to think of the right one). Is it possible to get water poisoning? Because I drank so much water yesterday that I felt kind of sick. Plus I was peeing every five minutes. But anyway.
I went in today, and explained to my 'interviewer' how it was my third attempt to give blood, and my final if it stopped partway through, like the previous two times. You know when you're in there and they have to take a blood sample from you initially? Well, the little thingy they use to prick your finger doesn't really hurt when they do it -- just a little pinch -- but MAN, afterward it hurts like nobody's business! I mean, even the big needle in my arm doesn't make my arm hurt the way that little prick hurts afterward. There's even a small bruise around the site on the pad of my finger.
As I'm lying on the chair thingy, waiting for someone to come make the preparations to take my life's blood away, there's this woman chattering in the chair next to me. She asked me if it was my first time, and I explained. As I'm sitting there waiting, looking around me at all the people happily giving blood with no problems, I get tenser and tenser. I know it's not a big deal, but there's just something about waiting for someone to come jab you with a big needle, not knowing if it's going to be for nothing, that kind of makes the experience a bit daunting.
Do not read on if you get queasy easily or if you do not like to read about blood. Or needles.
So I'm all tense and feeling uneasy, and then I hear a small commotion beside me. The woman is going, "It's okay, it's okay! Don't worry about it!" And the blood technician is apologizing. So I look over, and what do I see?? Blood has spurted all up the woman's arm. Apparently, she could feel her blood pumping really fast and thought about saying something to the technician, but didn't, and then when the needle went in, the blood just went like a mini-geyser. I can't tell you how horrified I was. It was like I was in a sitcom, only the thing about sitcoms is, if any of those things ever really happened to you, it wouldn't be funny at all. Yeah. My stomach heaved, and I thought, "No one's jabbed me yet; I can flee." Instead, I just looked away and tried not to hear their conversation (but did anyway; the technician came back with some peroxide or whatever to try and get the blood stains out of the woman's shirt).
Finally a technician came over to me, and I quickly explained the situation, because I wanted to make sure he was aware I had problem veins, right from the outset. He first tilted my chair higher, so that the blood would flow toward my upper body, then took forEVER preparing me. Meanwhile I was getting more and more tense. He got the needle in, but it was flowing reaaaallly slowly, so he moved it around a bit and massaged the site (not fun at all). "Hmm, you were right," he muttered, and I was like, "Dude, if you don't think it's going to work, don't put me through this. Just take the needle out and I'll be on my way." But finally he said in this resigned voice, "Well ... it's going. Slow, but going." And it was so depressing that I had done all I possibly could to make it work, but it was still going to be difficult. (The one thing I didn't do was allow them to take from my left arm, because I'm left handed and that would just be stupid.)
Meanwhile, another lady on my other side finished, in the time that it took to even get me prepared. It's just so easy for some people.
They gave me this little sponge thing to squeeze, to help the blood flow, and I was using that, when blood-spurting lady started talking to me. And I was really glad for the distraction, so I started talking to her ... and little by little, I began to relax. She was one of those "nothing ever bothers me" types, and unlike last time, I grew less conscious of the needle in my arm, and just started having this conversation with this woman. The other thing that helped me relax was -- I looked down, at the little oscillating thing that keeps the blood in the bag moving so that it won't clot -- and noticed that there were numbers on the digital display, which moved. I was really excited by the prospect that there was a goal number in mind (I'm just that much of a freak), which would make it 'easier' for me. So I found out what number I had to reach (601), and so I just kept checking it to see how close I was. It was nice to know there was an end point; previously, it was like I felt the needle was going to be in there indefinitely. There were about five technicians who kept coming back to check on me (I was soooo slow, as other people were quickly finishing around me). The woman I was talking to finished up pretty fast (she was in to donate blood to herself, as she was getting hip surgery), but she said she would stick around to make sure that I finished, which was so nice of her.
Oh, and there was a really hot guy lying in a chair right across from me, donating platelets. He made funny expressions.
So finally, FINALLY, my machine beeped that my bag was full! And I was sooooo glad and excited that this time it hadn't been for naught, that this time I had actually helped give a unit of blood that someone, somewhere, was going to get to use. Which is nice.
And that is the end of my successful blood donation story. <g>
If I ever donate blood again, I'll so need to be on the phone with someone to help me relax and get through it. :D
And now, something a little more fun than blood -- how cute is this bag? In case you're wondering, it's Dooney & Bourke, in 'celery.'
Happy Friday, everyone!
Yes, tres exciting.
A few weeks ago, I had gotten the call to go in and donate, and I explained my terrible experiences from before. She agreed that if I encountered the same problems this time, I shouldn't try and donate anymore.
One of the things they told me to do was to drink a lot of water the day before, so that my veins would be extra puffy (that's not the right word, but it's 1am and can't be bothered to think of the right one). Is it possible to get water poisoning? Because I drank so much water yesterday that I felt kind of sick. Plus I was peeing every five minutes. But anyway.
I went in today, and explained to my 'interviewer' how it was my third attempt to give blood, and my final if it stopped partway through, like the previous two times. You know when you're in there and they have to take a blood sample from you initially? Well, the little thingy they use to prick your finger doesn't really hurt when they do it -- just a little pinch -- but MAN, afterward it hurts like nobody's business! I mean, even the big needle in my arm doesn't make my arm hurt the way that little prick hurts afterward. There's even a small bruise around the site on the pad of my finger.
As I'm lying on the chair thingy, waiting for someone to come make the preparations to take my life's blood away, there's this woman chattering in the chair next to me. She asked me if it was my first time, and I explained. As I'm sitting there waiting, looking around me at all the people happily giving blood with no problems, I get tenser and tenser. I know it's not a big deal, but there's just something about waiting for someone to come jab you with a big needle, not knowing if it's going to be for nothing, that kind of makes the experience a bit daunting.
Do not read on if you get queasy easily or if you do not like to read about blood. Or needles.
So I'm all tense and feeling uneasy, and then I hear a small commotion beside me. The woman is going, "It's okay, it's okay! Don't worry about it!" And the blood technician is apologizing. So I look over, and what do I see?? Blood has spurted all up the woman's arm. Apparently, she could feel her blood pumping really fast and thought about saying something to the technician, but didn't, and then when the needle went in, the blood just went like a mini-geyser. I can't tell you how horrified I was. It was like I was in a sitcom, only the thing about sitcoms is, if any of those things ever really happened to you, it wouldn't be funny at all. Yeah. My stomach heaved, and I thought, "No one's jabbed me yet; I can flee." Instead, I just looked away and tried not to hear their conversation (but did anyway; the technician came back with some peroxide or whatever to try and get the blood stains out of the woman's shirt).
Finally a technician came over to me, and I quickly explained the situation, because I wanted to make sure he was aware I had problem veins, right from the outset. He first tilted my chair higher, so that the blood would flow toward my upper body, then took forEVER preparing me. Meanwhile I was getting more and more tense. He got the needle in, but it was flowing reaaaallly slowly, so he moved it around a bit and massaged the site (not fun at all). "Hmm, you were right," he muttered, and I was like, "Dude, if you don't think it's going to work, don't put me through this. Just take the needle out and I'll be on my way." But finally he said in this resigned voice, "Well ... it's going. Slow, but going." And it was so depressing that I had done all I possibly could to make it work, but it was still going to be difficult. (The one thing I didn't do was allow them to take from my left arm, because I'm left handed and that would just be stupid.)
Meanwhile, another lady on my other side finished, in the time that it took to even get me prepared. It's just so easy for some people.
They gave me this little sponge thing to squeeze, to help the blood flow, and I was using that, when blood-spurting lady started talking to me. And I was really glad for the distraction, so I started talking to her ... and little by little, I began to relax. She was one of those "nothing ever bothers me" types, and unlike last time, I grew less conscious of the needle in my arm, and just started having this conversation with this woman. The other thing that helped me relax was -- I looked down, at the little oscillating thing that keeps the blood in the bag moving so that it won't clot -- and noticed that there were numbers on the digital display, which moved. I was really excited by the prospect that there was a goal number in mind (I'm just that much of a freak), which would make it 'easier' for me. So I found out what number I had to reach (601), and so I just kept checking it to see how close I was. It was nice to know there was an end point; previously, it was like I felt the needle was going to be in there indefinitely. There were about five technicians who kept coming back to check on me (I was soooo slow, as other people were quickly finishing around me). The woman I was talking to finished up pretty fast (she was in to donate blood to herself, as she was getting hip surgery), but she said she would stick around to make sure that I finished, which was so nice of her.
Oh, and there was a really hot guy lying in a chair right across from me, donating platelets. He made funny expressions.
So finally, FINALLY, my machine beeped that my bag was full! And I was sooooo glad and excited that this time it hadn't been for naught, that this time I had actually helped give a unit of blood that someone, somewhere, was going to get to use. Which is nice.
And that is the end of my successful blood donation story. <g>
If I ever donate blood again, I'll so need to be on the phone with someone to help me relax and get through it. :D
And now, something a little more fun than blood -- how cute is this bag? In case you're wondering, it's Dooney & Bourke, in 'celery.'
Happy Friday, everyone!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-03-04 04:32 pm (UTC)Also, surely your friend has better things to do than pick on a level 0 human. Honestly.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-04 09:31 pm (UTC)