last last week, a bankwide invitation to donate blood was posted everywhere in the bank. this is an activity we have yearly and every single year i attempt to donate blood but at the last minute i back out. i back out not because of the needles mind you, or the sight of blood, but mainly because no is there to comfort me after... =) i know, i am such a baby! there was this one year when i actually talked some friends into donating blood, but when we went there to be checked up before the actual donation, they were disqualified because there were underweight... i was then sitting in one corner hoping against hope that i'm underweight too, to no avail... hahaha... and although i was healthy as a horse, the coward that i am, i backed out.
this year though i decided things will be different. in celebration of the so many changes that is happening to my life this year, i put up a brave front and trudged on. yep, for the first time, i went ahead and donated blood. good thing that i found an officemate who donated every year and i went along with him.
first i signed all the required forms and questionnaires. had my temperature, weight and blood pressure checked. then the nurses pricked my finger to test my blood type... then i was made to lie down a bed and wait for a nurse to attend to me.
when the nurse did come to stick the needle to my arm, i warned her a couple of times that nurses often have a hard time looking for the right vein. she was confident and assuring, of course she ended up trying to stick the needle in my vein a couple of times, hurting a LOT!
in the end she managed to get the blood flowing. at first there was nothing to it at all, i was just lying down, playing with a stress ball, never mind the needle in my arm and the bag by my side which was fast getting filled with my blood. after a couple of minutes, i started feeling woosy and faint.
hmmm. this is how it feels like loosing 450 cc of blood.
anyway, after a couple more minutes, i was feeling ok again... not really 100% but manageable. i was given some stuff help me recover faster: a yummy sandwich, bottled water and balut. i was also given a purple tshirt as a token. =)
the whole thing was over in about 20 minutes, and i went out our canteen feeling better. at last i did it, i am now a proud blood donor and a purple hearts club member.
