“Be a blood and organ donor. All it costs is a little love.” ~Author Unknown
Friday started off as such a great day. It was absolutely beautiful outside! The weather was perfect and the trees were so nice and vibrant.
The first stop I had to make was at the bank! This verified how well my day was going to play out. The parking lot is always packed with cars and usually you have to drive around for a spot – because who wants to park across the street? I pulled into the parking lot and it was like I did some crazy good karma and got the best spot – next to the wheelchair spot of course.
After I left my amazing parking spot the bank, I headed down to our radio station to donate some bras. Every October the radio station does a bra drive for breast cancer. For every bra they get, the local slots will give a dollar to breast cancer. The “cool” part of this (if not donating money was enough), at the end of the month the fire department goes down and strings all the bras around the building. I actually took a picture from last year.
So before I left I went though my draws and found 5 which I do not wear anymore, and my sister also gave me 5 of hers as well. After they are strung around the building they get dry cleaned and sent to women of (I think) Haiti. Last year there was over 4,500 bras donating – which is pretty awesome.
When I got to the radio station I was actually shocked with the number of bras which were already there – after all, it was only the beginning of the month.
As I left, I noticed there were signs lining the streets that there was a blood drive going on. I have wanted to donate blood for awhile but actually cancelled my appointment. You see, I am petrified of needles. I knew I would be able to give blood, but I was so afraid of the finger prick. I have never had one before and it seemed super frightening.
I decided I would just go for it. I mean, if I didn’t think too much about it, I wouldn’t be able to freak out. It was a few hours since I last ate, so I thought I should stop at Tim Hortons and get a muffin so my stomach wasn’t fully empty.
I finished my muffin and headed to Canadian Blood Services. I signed in, read the information package – which was essentially everything that could go wrong with this appointment, followed by a list of questions of how you would be denied to donate. After I read it all I was given this pretty cool sticker which I was told to “Wear it proud”
I then sat with a nurse who entered everything in the computer – and then I had to get the super scary finger prick. I told her I was beyond scared of this and she told me to look away and “It would be over before I knew it”. I totally thought “bullshit. You’re lying to me lady”. Sure enough I heard the click and I just sat there tensed up waiting for this immense pain to happen…. Yeah, I didn’t even know the click was the stab..
On a positive note, I was told my glucose and my iron levels could not have been any better. I laughed and said “yay! I guess I am not diabetic”. Apparently the blood services is not somewhere to joke, because she asked me 7 questions about why I would think I had diabetes. “Is there a history in your family” “have you been tested before” “did you out grow it as a child”.
Moving forward I was sent into a room with a nurse to be asked “serious personal questions” such as “have you had sex with a man who has had sex with a man” or “have you handled a monkey and/or their urine in the past 6 months”. This was then followed by a blood pressure check. Well, I was still shaky from the finger prick my pulse was at 114 – which is too high. I had to go “relax” for 15 minutes and try again. If I failed, I would have been denied for that day. I was not going to fail. I did NOT get stabbed for nothing. Sure enough, 15 minutes later my pulse was at 54.. Crazy right?
It was my turn to get into a chair and give blood. The nurse was annoyed that I had to get it taken from my left arm. I am not too sure why, but she was annoyed. She chose and “outer vein” which let me tell you hurt like a big ol’ mother f bomb. After the stinging went away she began the blood extraction. The sample blood, the vials, and the pint, took a total of 6 minutes and 13 seconds to extract. The woman beside me was on minute 30 and still going.
Everything was over and I had to sit for 10 minutes before I could go to refreshments. She was going to put a green gauzey thing on my arm but I requested pink!
Everything was over and I was done!… However, 5 minutes after I took this picture, I went to get my refreshments. I stood up ready to go home, and I instantaneously felt nauseous, I got tunnel vision, and my hearing went all weird – almost like I was under water. I started swaying, someone caught me, and I woke up on a stretcher covered in ice pacts and fans. Yeah, I passed out. The nurses were yelling at me “Keep your eyes open!” “stay with me!!!” “Don’t close your eyes”.. I remember thinking how badly I just wanted to sleep.
After a few minutes I was completely fine – however, they would not let me drive for a few hours. So instead, my dad came and picked me up. It was definitely an interesting first time donating blood!!!!
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Have you donated blood? Ever fainted?
How was your week?
Life Full Of Jules 
So odd that you started out the post by saying, “I went by the radio station and donated some bras.” So crazy! So did you have a good Thanksgiving?
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