25 Things before 25: Donate blood

I decided to donate blood last Monday.  I had been looking for a place and time to do it, but living in New Haven without a car, I had to wait on the fates to present a blood drive close to where I live.  The particular blood drive that I happened to participate in was at the Yale gym, and was some kind of contest with Harvard.  You can't even understand how many bizarre things Yale manages to make into a contest with Harvard until you experience it!

Anyways, I showed up at the gym at my appointed time slot.  First, I was asked a number of questions orally.  Apparently, it was somewhat of a problem that I have traveled to Brazil in the past year.  They had to look up Salvador in the computer about 5 different times to make sure that it was acceptable for me to donate blood.  This was frustrating, not because they had to do it - I want to make sure not to transfer some terrible illness to whatever sick person is receiving my blood - but because they wouldn't trust me when I told them they had already looked it up a number of times.  And apparently it's not very obvious that the city of Salvador begins with an S. o.0

Image from here

Next, I had to fill in a scantron form, with information like my social security number and some tidbits of my medical history on it.  After they collected it, I was sent to a nurse, who took my height, weight, and blood pressure.  They also did a finger prick to check for iron levels.  Apparently I have very high levels of iron in my blood... yay?

After completing another survey, this one on the computer, I was led to a table, where I had to lie down.  They cleaned the area with iodine three times, and then inserted the tube into the vein.  Apparently I have quite lethargic blood because while my blood bag was filling up, about 3 other people came and went at the bed next to mine.

However, my bag was finally filled up, and they detached the tube.  I then had to press a bandage against my inner elbow and hold my arm vertically over my head until the bleeding stopped.  I was quite dizzy at this point, so they made me lie on the bed for a further 5 minutes and drink some juice.  Then they led me over to the "recovery room", which was a table loaded up with snacks and juices.  I was instructed to drink more juice, and eat some yummy cookies and fruit snacks.  I was more than happy to comply!  Plus they also gave me a t-shirt that said something about Yale vs. Harvard blood drive on it.

Image from here

Unfortunately, I didn't realize how long the whole process takes.  I left about an hour and a half for me to do this between two rehearsals, but it took that entire time.  I didn't have much of a chance to recover with the fruit snacks since I was going to be late for octet rehearsal.  But it actually wasn't that much of a big deal, since I ended up being dizzy for nearly the whole rehearsal, and almost unable to play.

I probably will donate blood again, but I will do a few things differently.  First, I will over-hydrate before going in, to the point where I have to use the bathroom three times before they even stick me on the bed.  I will eat an enormous lunch or breakfast before going, and leave at least two free hours, so I'm not rushed when I should be relaxing in order to feel better.  Finally, I will eat another big meal immediately afterwards, since this time I didn't stop feeling better until about 4 hours later, when I finally had a chance to eat dinner.  It was definitely an interesting experience, though!

PS. One of the reasons I wanted to do this was to find out my blood type.  If I were ever in an accident, it would be important to know what blood type I have.  They said that I can find out by email in a few weeks, so I'm looking forward to learning that soon!

Update (3/24/13): I finally received my letter from the Red Cross.  I have O+ blood.

Until next time!

Lauren