I hate giving blood. I hate needles and waiting in line. I don't like sitting there waiting for the lady to come and stab me in the arm. Those seven minutes it takes to donate feel like forever. I get so cold and I am always exhausted afterwards and it's awful. I hate it, but it's so good. The reasons I keep going back (I make myself sound like a regular, but I've only done it four times)... The reasons I keep going back are:
1. The questioning with the RN is humorous. I giggle while they ask me about all the people I haven't had sex with. There's even a question about handling monkey's urine or something about monkeys.
2. It's really good to donate blood. You can help so many people and I am O+ so I can give to A+, AB+ and O+. That's pretty useful blood.
3. As much as I hate it, it's kind of fun. I have gone with friends each time and it has always been a pretty fun environment.
This time, I had an interesting experience... and no friend to share it with. Lauren and Michelle had class till five and I was done at 3:30. UBC-O had a blood donor clinic set up in the gym so I decided to head out there. I made sure I ate a lot of food and drank a lot of liquids before (more so than I usually do before donating) and then I headed out to the gym. I sat in line for TWO hours!! It passed with the usual childish giggling, some small talk with fellow donors, and reading magazines (Halle Berry is pregnant by the way, and there was something about Beckham and the American league or something). Anyways. Right away when I was stabbed I knew something was a bit different. I sucked it up though and wiggled my fingers as instructed and thought about nothing in particular. Anyways. So I pounded out that blood! I was done in just over 6 minutes when it usually takes me 7 1/2 to 8 minutes to donate. Anyway, as the lady was pulling out the needle I was like, "This doesn't feel right"... so she called something out loud and I knew I was kind of losing it. So, because I was actually pretty interested in how things were feeling, I was trying to focus on exactly how I felt, but all I could think about was the stupid song Michelle and Lauren were playing this morning "Teardrops on my guitar". It was awful. #1 I hate that song and #2 it was ruining my concentration. I think I started day-dreaming about something and the next thing I knew I was being rolled onto my side by these four nurses and my chair was now in the lying down position, I had a wet cloth on my head and neck and one lady was asking another my name. I mumbled out that my name was Ashley and then I realized that I didn't know how I got where I was. It was the strangest thing and then I felt entirely fine like two seconds later. They made me stay there and they brought me juice and I drank it lying down and it was kind of sweet actually. So strange though, but awesome. I wish I could have paid attention to how I felt. The lady was saying that my eyes rolled back and everything. So weird. She said it may have to do with the fact that I donated a lot quicker than I ever have or maybe I didn't have enough wheat. Anyway... I was pretty proud that I finished my donation before passing out.
On a completely separate note. We were talking about Health Promotion in Nursing 111 today and my instructor said that in Israel they banned pesticides and breast cancer went down by 60% in women!! AND there was no decrease in production. That is a significant amount, eh?