Sunday, August 21, 2005

Bruised by Donating

I got a real nice bruise after donating blood. The dark purple didn't come out so great in this photo — it looks much lighter than it is in real life.

Back in high school, I gave blood exactly once. I'm rather squirmy (though not squeamish) about needles, and so I stayed away from blood drives after that. But Microsoft was organizing a blood drive, complete with a bloodmobile right outside my building. Donating blood is a Good Thing To Do, so I signed myself up and went in last Tuesday.

The guy that took care of me was a young guy who'd only been working at drawing blood for a month. He was cool, though, so I don't blame him for the badness that happened. The blood flow from my arm kept stopping; he eventually called over the nurse that had been working there for 20 years to help out. An hour and a half (!!) later, my blood clotted one last time and they gave up getting the full pint out of me.

Afterward, I was sorta dizzy, even after sitting and drinking juice for 10 minutes in the bloodmobile before I left. This photo is of me lying down again, feeling dizzy back at the apartment. So now I'm even less enthusiastic about giving blood, although I probobly still will...

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3 comments:

Lisa R said...

Cheap parts!

Ya wimp! =)

Shelley: the Dread Pirate Rodgers said...

Hey! I recognize that quilt! :-)

staticfoo said...

Leaking blood vessels... How fun!