The Vampires Saved My Life!

I'm writing this blog because Brenda told me it was due. Apparently I now have deadlines or something, and am responsible for entertaining people at least on a monthly or biweekly basis... or... some sort of time period.

Last night I saw a piece on the news that said Kansas City was at a critical shortage for blood, especially O negative and B negative blood. So, being the upstanding fine citizen that I am, I thought I'd go out to the Community Blood Center and give them my blood tonight after work. I somehow conned a coworker with O negative blood to come with me.

On the way there, there must have been some sort of multicar vehicular insanity happen on the road because they closed both lanes of traffic. We took some random made up detour where I guessed a lot. (Yes, I do think your Garmin is brilliant and I do want one, okay?) But, we eventually made it because my sense of direction is so keen. (I hear you laughing.)

We go in, fill out the paper work, and get to givin' ye old blood. And because I know you're interested, my temperature was 99.1, my pulse was 72 and my blood pressure told them I was dead (or 102/68). But they took my blood anyway. And my hemoglobin fell at 14.7, so that was good because it has to be between 12 and 18 and women usually fall on the lower end of that range. So, I guess I'm in relatively good health. Because I pretend that's a physical.

I have to tell you though, that needle is way bigger than I remember. I gave the 500ml of blood relatively fast for me, and when I was done I hung my legs off the side of the cot thing and felt fine. Then I sat down and drank my apple juice and had a cookie and a half waiting for my coworker... and then... I felt odd. All of a sudden. And I got all hot and sweaty and just didn't feel right, although I can't really describe exactly how I felt. Just that it was "not right". So, I put my head down and felt myself sweat... a lot. Like, summertime running outside sweat when it all drips off your face. Apparently I sweat so much that it went through my shirt and left a nice wetness on the back of my chair.

Coworker made me look at her, noticed that I was YELLOW, and asked a nurse for help. FOUR nurses rushed to me, picked me up off the chair, laid me down on the floor, and propped my legs and feet in the chair. When asked how I was doing, I replied, "I don't know." And then I said, "Really hot."

They broke open four of those instant ice pack things and put one on my forehead, one on my stomach, one on my neck, and one on the back of my neck. I was cooled off pretty instantly and started feeling better within a few seconds. They made me drink some RC Cola (That still exists?) through a straw... which... was interesting. I was sucking on the straw but getting little fluid through it, which made me laugh and wonder if the straw was defective or if I was an idiot. I'm still not sure of the answer to that. (I also don't need your input on the matter.)

I laid there for a while, sat up a little, drank the soda from the cup, and was totally fine. Then I got fun questions I had to answer for the nurse and she wrote some things down on my chart thingamabob. Fun times!

I got a free long sleeve t-shirt (large) and a sticker for my ordeal! Oh, and some apple juice and RC Cola and Oreos.

I'm not really sure what happened or why because I had a normal lunch, drank 3 bottles of water today, and had a "snack" of a package of crackers and a Snickers bar before I actually gave blood. Maybe something in that combination was a bad idea. *shrug*

Either way, I'll totally do it again. My little inconvenience is worth it if I can help out someone else in need. Yay for B negative blood and the other 2 percent of the population that has it! Don't worry, I'm here for you!


End Blog.