In the spring of 1998, March I think, I gave blood for the first time. It was a Sunday morning, and there was a blood drive at church. I gave my blood and had no problems until the draw was finished, and then I became very faint. The nurses turned me on my head, fed me juice and cookies, and told me off for not eating a hearty enough breakfast. I felt better after a little while, and that was that.
Later that afternoon I went to see Titanic with my best school friend, Al, and I bought a big soft drink (because I had been told to drink a lot of liquids, and that's all that was available at the movie theater). By about halfway through I had consumed most of the soft drink, and the movie was starting to get very watery and sloshy. I nudged Al and whispered, I gotta pee.
She said, Not now!
and wouldn't let me out for a minute or so, since she had already seen the movie and knew a missable bit was coming up, but it probably didn't matter because I wasn't watching very attentively anyway. That's the fastest bathroom trip I've ever made in my life. Good thing there wasn't a line.
After all that, I got a letter saying my blood had failed one of the tests and couldn't be used! Argh.
The second time I tried to give blood, my blood flowed so slowly that they cut me off and didn't take a full bag. It couldn't be used that time either, of course. I think I felt a little faint that time, but it wasn't too bad.
The third try was today. I was feeling in pretty good health, and I made sure to drink a lot of water over the last couple of days. My blood flowed fast at first and then slowed down, but that was more or less okay. The problem was that I started feeling really faint as the bag got close to full. The nurse (or doctor, I don't know which) stopped the draw, but it took me a couple of minutes to recover. Then I went to the restroom but sat down on the floor when I started feeling faint again. That helped a little but not enough, so I got up and stumbled into the hallway, where the nurse saw me and had me lie down again. Jeff brought me juice and cookies, and eventually I felt well enough to leave.
In the car I started feeling worse than ever. My heart hurt, my stomach was nauseous, my extremeties tingled, and my head wasn't getting enough blood. I asked Jeff to turn around and go back to the blood center, but then I had the bright idea of putting my feet up on the dashboard. That immediately made me feel better, so we continued on home. I'm feeling okay now, although I'm not quite back to normal.
I had decided that my third try was going to be the last. Since I keep having bad reactions to giving blood, I think it's just not meant to be. This decision really pains me, because my whole family (as well as my ex-boyfriend and my current one) believe in giving blood and do so often. My blood type is O-, the universal donor type, which makes me feel especially guilty. Still, I don't have much of a choice. Blood donation just isn't for me.
Kimberley says:
That's a shame but you gave it your best shot. The same thing happen to me. I gave blood for several years without too many problems but then I lost a couple of kilos that turned out to be crucial, so I had to stop. I soothe my conscience by trying to encourage other people to give blood.
(Yes, hello, it's me again. I probably owe you mail from ages ago, sorry, but you're in plenty of good company. *g*)