Be nice to hippie and me.....

[St. Jimmy]

We gave blood today! I was freaking out, and had to put the collar of my sweatwhirt over my mouth to keep from hyper-venlating. :? But I always freak out about needles. They're scary!!!!!! :(

[pmcolt]

Good for you two! I'm going to be extra nice, just for that. (Not that you'll notice.)


Yeah, those needles are creepy. I remember the first (and so far, only) time I gave blood. It was at school. I had to re-fill out their consent form twice, first because of an argument over whether they really needed to have my SSN (turns out they did), and the second because they didn't consider a big circle around the entire line of "NO" answers to be properly filling out the form.

After finally getting the form filled out, they sat me down in one seat, and tried to find a vein in my left arm to draw blood from. Turns out, the lady couldn't find one, and the seat I was in was set up for left arm only. So, they move me to another chair, and have no trouble finding a vein in my right arm.

So, I'm sitting there, squeezing and unsqueezing the little stress-ball thingy they give you, and my bag stops filling about halfway through. ("We've been having trouble with these bags all day." Now she tells me.) So, the lady tells me, "don't worry, this won't hurt" as she starts moving the needle around, trying to get it to keep drawing. After a few seconds of this, she pulls the needle out, then jabs it back in. ("Ouch!" "Sorry, I should've warned you, that will hurt. Thought I could get away with it...")

Finally, they finish. And my arm's a little sore from the two needle jabs, but other than that, I don't really feel lightheaded or anything. Which is good, because when I made my way over to the cookie table, they were fresh out.


I read somewhere that the needles don't hurt as much if you cough while they're going in. I guess it's the same idea as shaking your head when you pound your thumb with a hammer, but coughing while someone's trying to stick a needle into a vein just doesn't seem like a good idea to me.


Anyway, long story short, good for you guys. :)

[troubleagain]

I'm proud of youse young un's! I'm up to a couple of gallons now, because each donation of platelets that I do counts as either two or three units, depending on how long I feel like sitting in the apheresis chair. Sometimes they give us extra nice gifts for gallon marks, or donating on a holiday or something.

[hippietrekx]

I've got some pretty bad bruising on my arm and it's still a little sore. The first time I did this, it was just fine.

I had really low blood pressure and pulse this time (a bad time to be calm?) and it took me 20 minutes to fill my bag (which is really long, I was the longest time all day). Because it was taking so long, the lady was moving the needle in and out and back and forth, which caused all the bruising. Ow.

That didn't stop me from going to see the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie with my favorite female companions (hee hee, no Jimmy. Sorry, it's your penis at fault) I kept walking around the theater before the show while wearing a blue mask saying, "I'm a ninja turtle... *waves bandaged elbow in air* that donates blood! Oh yeah, I'm cool. HUH! *random ninja move*" :D

Meanwhile, the bruises on my shoulder and legs are pretty much gone.

--hippie

[St. Jimmy]

Meanwhile, the bruises on my shoulder and legs are pretty much gone.

--hippie

I'll have to make new ones then.... :wink: :P

[pmcolt]

BAD St. Jimmy! BAD! You should be nice to any ninja turtle who's given blood recently.

Besides, you should never leave bruises, nor any other physical evidence, on a girl.

[Heid the Ba]

Well done, very piblic spirited!