Giving blood

So, I had a lunch date with Baylee’s first grade teacher. We met for lunch and chatted to catch up with things and she invited me over to the location where she had an appointment to give blood. I thought to myself, “You’re 33 years old and you’ve NEVER given blood. Maybe you should give it a shot. It’s such a great gift!” So, I gave in and went to give blood.

I need to say here, that in high school, I was trying to think of everything that I could to avoid giving blood – because I was freaked out by them pricking my finger. WEENY! If I remember correctly, that day, I immediately ‘got a headache’. Whew, I got out of it! . . .back to the present day. . .

I’m sitting there, waiting for the tech to check me in. He shoves a glove at me and says, ‘Gum’. I looked at him as if he were crazy and said, ‘Seriously?’ He replied, “Yes, gum causes your temp to go up.” At that point, I began wondering what I had gotten myself into. I managed to get through the finger stick and the ridiculous questions I had to answer. I finally decided that I didn’t have ’said problem’ if I didn’t know what it was or how to pronounce it. I got tickled at myself trying to read those things. 

I was thinking to myself…”What have you managed to get yourself in to?” when they called me to sit in the [I'm going to call it this] ‘draining chair’. I sat there looking all around me at the folks that were already ‘draining’. As I was looking around for my friend, I realized that I had beat her to this location. She walked up with an expression that I was astonished to read! NO! They declined her! Her heart was beating irregularly and they wouldn’t take her. I’m not gonna lie…I was thinking, ‘SO IS MINE! GET ME OUT OF HERE!’

Mr. Blood Drainer came over and told me to get ready. Really? Like, how sir? As he was sticking that GINORMOUS needle into my vein, I realized that I could handle this. It wasn’t going to be as bad as I had envisioned. He told me to keep pumping my hand every 5 – 10 seconds. Sure. Uh, Sir, is my hand and arm supposed to feel cold? I feel funny Sir. All I know is that every person there was talking about how fast I had drained. As he capped my flow, removed the needle, he told me to hold my arm up. “My musc…” was my thought. I heard someone say, ‘She’s going’. I was wondering where I was going but considering the fact that I couldn’t even say, ‘my muscles aren’t working’ my mind immediately grasped the concept that I was getting ready to pass out. OH NO!!!!!! You took out too much blood for me to even stay awake?

So, I had to sit there and wait until I didn’t feel jelly legged anymore. I felt terrible that whole evening. Apparently, my blood drained too quickly leaving me feeling quite weak. It felt like labor to breathe. I asked myself, “How long until I feel like normal?” What is the recoup time? No one told me.

The next day, I rode to Myrtle Beach to Breakaway to be a helper for the youth. STUPID! In the very hot sun, I was intentional about drinking water. In fact, I consumed at least 15 bottles of water. I kept refilling the bottle. I had to sit down every second I could – I couldn’t shake that horrible WEAK feeling. Cathy O asked me, “Are you okay?” I’m not really sure where the courage for honesty came at that moment, but I shook my head, ‘No’. She immediately got me to her cabin to rest and recoup. I think I was about to pass out again. I was nauseated and feeling weak. Fortunately, I recouped quickly and felt like an idiot. I was there to help and ended up needing help.

The next day, I was still feeling poorly. I believe that I am not really going to try again – no more giving blood for me. It takes too much for me to get better. My friend Lee suggested I drink 2 Liters of Mountain Dew to replace the 2 Liters of blood they take. I giggled. I tried to do any and everything I could. NOTHING worked but sitting. Thank you to all of you that attempted to ease my situation. I just have to laugh at myself. It’s what I get for attempting something that I know nothing about! DORK!