It was my senior year and the American Red Cross had come to our high school for the annual blood drive. I was anxious to give blood for the first time. However, my anxiousness soon turned to embarrassment. As the needle was being inserted and the blood started to drain into the bag, I passed out! Yes, I got carted away in the fluorescent orange chair to the recovery area. How humiliating!
Now that you have some history, I will tell you about last night. I have to get blood drawn on a regular basis due to my thyroid, so it doesn't bother me very much anymore when a few vials of blood are taken from me at the lab (not that I love needles!). One of the churches here in town was having a blood drive, Jason had planned to go and give blood, so I thought, "hey, why not try again??". I am blood type O+ and there is always an urgent need for this type of blood, so I gave it a shot. So, after the many, many questions that I had to go through before even getting to the point of the blood drawing, my nerves started to take over. I got on the table and had Mason talk to me so that I would be distracted by the needle. It took 8 minutes to get the pint of blood that they needed, as the end came nearer, I could feel my entire body going numb and my stomach feeling really sick. The woman taking the blood kept talking to me to get me through it, but I knew that the flashback from high school was coming true again! As I sat up on the table, Jason was looking at me and he said that he could see the color drain from my face. I felt horrible. They carted me off in the now updated maroon chair straight to the recovery area! As I laid there all I thought about was wanting to be home and WHY DID I DO THIS!! Jason and Mason seemed to get a kick out of it, I suppose if it happened to Jason I would have laughed, too! My entire night was spent in the bathroom, and to put it nicely, by morning, there was nothing left in my stomach to come up. So, it is safe to say that I will not be giving blood anytime soon.
On another note, tonight is my first class! I am kind of excited. I bought my book today and in the bookstore, in line behind me, were two teenage boys talking about the class project that they are going to be working on. The first boys report was going to be 'the positive effects of marijuana' and the other person's report was about the 'positives of lowering the drinking age to 17'! Yep, it made me feel old because I remember in high school how funny it was when kids did reports on stupid stuff like that, but what do I really expect going back to college at 29??!
2 comments:
Sorry to hear about the adverse effects of the blood drive. Whoever gets that O+ will be very, very grateful. Sounds like you bounced back.
I know what you mean about the flashbacks with giving blood. When I was in High School my blood pressure was actually too low to give blood (which they made me do the whole hoop-la before telling me I could give that day). It happened to me again! when I tried to give blood. I tried 2 other times, but those times I actually could give blood, I just refused to look at my arm, since that totally creeped me out. Glad you are recovered now. Stinks that you go sick though.
Hope your first day of classes went well!
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