We could ALL be rockstars...
Ahoy all ye blogger folk! Here's an interesting story about donating blood:
Today, I was supposed to go donate, because a friend of mine is in a frat, and they were holding a blood drive at good ole' Maucker Union. So, I show up at my scheduled bleeding time ( 9:30) this morning. For those of you who haven't donated blood before, they ask you a rediculous inventory of questions. All of these can be summed up into one giant question " Have you ever had sex for money or other drugs with a homosexual African man in Guatemala, while doing heroin/cocaine/meth/pot since 1977?"
So, after that they take your blood pressure to make sure that it's high enough to donate. My blood pressure was too low and my heart rate was pretty low, so the lady asking the questions goes and fetches a can of Pepsi. (I detest Pepsi, and most soda in general.)
Really, how much is one can of soda going to effect your blood pressure? Well, I drink it as fast as I can, and after about 10 minutes, the caffeine in it had raised my blood pressure right to the borderline of safety to donate. After a short walk to the tables where others are bleeding into plastic bags and lying on their backs, I get assigned to my own little table and get told to lie down.
Another lady takes my blood pressure and takes it again a couple more times, (apparently that Pepsi didn't work too long) she asks me what arm I'd like to have the blood taken out of, to which I replied "Eh, just take it out of the left. Its my favorite arm." (I mean really, do I care?) She laughed, and gave me the little squeezy ball and told me to squeeze it a few times, while she took my blood pressure again, and tried to find the veins in my arm she needed. After about 5 minutes of pumping a little squeezy ball, and having her keep checking and poking around my left arm, she goes to my right arm, and repeats the exact same thing. Then calls someone over to find the veins for her.
Now, the thought going through my head right now is "Do I really want to have this lady inserting needles into my arm if she can't find my veins? And if she thinks a can of Pepsi is good enough to raise my blood pressure and pulse? Where do they get these people?"
Another nurse/blood thief comes over to find the veins, and takes a marker and draws a big X on my arm where the first lady is supposed to insert the needle and start draining. After using half a bottle of iodine to sanitize the spot, she looks for my veins again, then starts the process of sticking me.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to tell you that it didn't hurt. I've got a pretty high threshold of pain, I've broken bones, torn muscles, had stitches, had tons of blood drawn from me, gotton a tattoo, and none of those things really bothered me too much, but this hurt. I swear I could feel her go through several veins in my arm before finding one.
After that, she put the little ball thing back in my hand and told me to squeeze every few seconds, and she hooked up this little bag, and a few tubes to get some samples of my blood before starting the actual pint for donation. About 10 minutes of that business had passed, she came back with a strange look on her face, and called the vein-finding lady over again and spoke to her for a little bit. Then asked about taking blood out of my left arm.
My thoughts again: "Lady, look, I don't mean to be a bitch here, but this is my blood we're dealing with, and I really don't feel like repeating all this crap on my other arm, if you can't get it, that's just too bad."
So, I asked what was going on, and she said that they couldn't get enough out of my right arm, but they had already taken too much for my height and weight, (I'm a whopping 5'4 137 lbs) to take any more safely for a donation, but what they had taken wasn't enough to actually donate. And that during the whole process, they had bruised my arm pretty badly, but hopefully this doesn't deter me from trying to donate again at a later date.
Grrr...So now, my arm hurts like hell, and it was all for nothing. I have to walk around with an iodine and bandage covered arm till I go to swimming practice tonight, which should be an interesting endeavor.
If you made it through that story, props to you. Everything else is pretty much all right. Classes are going well, yadda yadda yadda, and work is interesting as usual. I'm going to try to make it to Albia sometime in the next week. But for now, I'm going to take a quick nap before class, so I'm out for now. Hope all is going well for everyone else.
Peace.
Today, I was supposed to go donate, because a friend of mine is in a frat, and they were holding a blood drive at good ole' Maucker Union. So, I show up at my scheduled bleeding time ( 9:30) this morning. For those of you who haven't donated blood before, they ask you a rediculous inventory of questions. All of these can be summed up into one giant question " Have you ever had sex for money or other drugs with a homosexual African man in Guatemala, while doing heroin/cocaine/meth/pot since 1977?"
So, after that they take your blood pressure to make sure that it's high enough to donate. My blood pressure was too low and my heart rate was pretty low, so the lady asking the questions goes and fetches a can of Pepsi. (I detest Pepsi, and most soda in general.)
Really, how much is one can of soda going to effect your blood pressure? Well, I drink it as fast as I can, and after about 10 minutes, the caffeine in it had raised my blood pressure right to the borderline of safety to donate. After a short walk to the tables where others are bleeding into plastic bags and lying on their backs, I get assigned to my own little table and get told to lie down.
Another lady takes my blood pressure and takes it again a couple more times, (apparently that Pepsi didn't work too long) she asks me what arm I'd like to have the blood taken out of, to which I replied "Eh, just take it out of the left. Its my favorite arm." (I mean really, do I care?) She laughed, and gave me the little squeezy ball and told me to squeeze it a few times, while she took my blood pressure again, and tried to find the veins in my arm she needed. After about 5 minutes of pumping a little squeezy ball, and having her keep checking and poking around my left arm, she goes to my right arm, and repeats the exact same thing. Then calls someone over to find the veins for her.
Now, the thought going through my head right now is "Do I really want to have this lady inserting needles into my arm if she can't find my veins? And if she thinks a can of Pepsi is good enough to raise my blood pressure and pulse? Where do they get these people?"
Another nurse/blood thief comes over to find the veins, and takes a marker and draws a big X on my arm where the first lady is supposed to insert the needle and start draining. After using half a bottle of iodine to sanitize the spot, she looks for my veins again, then starts the process of sticking me.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to tell you that it didn't hurt. I've got a pretty high threshold of pain, I've broken bones, torn muscles, had stitches, had tons of blood drawn from me, gotton a tattoo, and none of those things really bothered me too much, but this hurt. I swear I could feel her go through several veins in my arm before finding one.
After that, she put the little ball thing back in my hand and told me to squeeze every few seconds, and she hooked up this little bag, and a few tubes to get some samples of my blood before starting the actual pint for donation. About 10 minutes of that business had passed, she came back with a strange look on her face, and called the vein-finding lady over again and spoke to her for a little bit. Then asked about taking blood out of my left arm.
My thoughts again: "Lady, look, I don't mean to be a bitch here, but this is my blood we're dealing with, and I really don't feel like repeating all this crap on my other arm, if you can't get it, that's just too bad."
So, I asked what was going on, and she said that they couldn't get enough out of my right arm, but they had already taken too much for my height and weight, (I'm a whopping 5'4 137 lbs) to take any more safely for a donation, but what they had taken wasn't enough to actually donate. And that during the whole process, they had bruised my arm pretty badly, but hopefully this doesn't deter me from trying to donate again at a later date.
Grrr...So now, my arm hurts like hell, and it was all for nothing. I have to walk around with an iodine and bandage covered arm till I go to swimming practice tonight, which should be an interesting endeavor.
If you made it through that story, props to you. Everything else is pretty much all right. Classes are going well, yadda yadda yadda, and work is interesting as usual. I'm going to try to make it to Albia sometime in the next week. But for now, I'm going to take a quick nap before class, so I'm out for now. Hope all is going well for everyone else.
Peace.
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