Donating Blood

Today was another blood drive at WBTV, one of our local TV stations, and as I mentioned in a previous post, is only about two miles from where I work. So, being as it's nearby, and the Red Cross has been calling me to come in for a donation, I thought this would be an opportune time to give again.

I talked briefly with Al Conklin while we were both waiting to donate. The line was moving fairly slow, and he had to head back to work before donating. I saw Luther again, the 82 year old man I met last year while donating, who was donating his 123rd pint. I also talked to another Red Cross volunteer I've met before, who's 83 and has donated 129 pints. I don't think I'll make it to half as many pints as either of them have donated.

I found out that NC has recently allowed 16 year olds to donate, with parental consent, and I understand that the High School donations are going pretty well.

I want to insert this "warning" here. If you don't like needles or blood you're probably not reading this post anyway, but if you are, you might want to just skip the next paragraph.

So, how did it go today? For the most part it was fine, once the blood started flowing. I was fortunate enough to have an inexperienced blood drawer, and she managed to insert the needle too far into my vein. Yes, it was fun. As she was inserting it I was thinking "man, she sure is sticking this in pretty far" and sure enough, she was. I looked down after she was finished, and she commented something along the lines of "something isn't right," which was obvious because no blood was in the tube. She called over another more experienced person who was able to extract the needle slightly and my donation started. I did have a minimal amount of bleeding, and my arm is a bit sore, but I'm sure I'll be just fine. I thought they might need to reinsert the needle, so I was thankful they didn't need to, at least I don't think they did. I wasn't watching.

After donating I felt fine, and enjoyed a bowl of Shoney's potato soup, a glass of Coke, a pack of Lance crackers, an oatmeal cream pie, and a Fig Newton. That's the real reason I donate blood, for the free food afterwards. They gave me a long sleeve t-shirt which I accidentally left sitting on the table, but I've only worn the one I got last year a time or two so that's fine with me.

This was my 16th pint since living in Charlotte, and even with the problems I had today, I look forward to the next time I donate.