No good deed…

The Red Cross keeps bugging me about giving blood. I think this is because I’m O- (a universal donor), which makes my blood in higher demand, and the fact that I hadn’t given blood for over 6 months as of last Friday. I’ve given blood at church a couple of times in the past few years, and generally it’s a pretty straightforward process – they give you this little heath screening and ask you a bunch of bizarre questions (”Have you ever had sex with a prostitute from Africa who has eaten beef brains in Europe for over 6 months?”), and then they put you in a chair and start taking a pint.

Well, this time, I went after a customer visit on Friday, to a different location than I usually go to. I got processed fairly quickly and got in a chair – sometimes that’s a problem because my heart rate can be under 50bpm at times (due to genetic and exercise factors). The guy helping me was nice, but he… well, he had shaky hands, possibly because he was nervous or maybe because he was older – needless to say, that was about the last thing in the world you want to deal with when someone is going to stab a needle into your vein.

It took him a while to get the needle in me, but once it was in, the time went quickly – I usually fill the bag in short order. Then came the tubes that they use to check your blood to make sure you don’t have any diseases… that took a long time.

Right before the last tube, I passed out. What happened after that, I’m still fuzzy about.

I know I sometimes get light headed when I give blood – that’s always been a problem of mine that I got from my mother – she’s passed out by having her legs crossed weird before. When I got really sick back in 2001, they did some blood tests on me, and I almost fell out of the chair.

It was surreal – one second I was doing fine, the next, I’m coming to in pain and with blood all over me. The needle was out of my arm, but apparently they managed to pull the tube out, leaving the needle in me, or there was blood still in the part of the tube before the clamp, because all that blood had managed to spray up and down the left side of my shirt and pants. My calves, chest, and back muscles all hurt – after a few seconds I knew it was surface muscle pain (like if you cough too hard or fall on your back), which made me rule out having a heart attack or other internal problem.

At this point, they had me pump my legs to get blood moving. I started feeling better so they excused me to the waiting area, where I drank a bunch of free juice and ate snacks. I ended up sitting at the same table as a very nice person who works for a Tucson city council member – go figure.

I got two T-shirts out of the experience (they’re good to run in). The blood came out of the shirt I was wearing (thanks Mom!), but the pants didn’t fare as well – it came out of the flat parts, but the edges that had multiple layers of fabric are still slightly stained.

I’ll probably give again, but next time I think I’m going to specify that I want someone who can poke me fast and get it over with.