my first blood donation

Hari ini dalam sejarah(peribadi) : On the 15th of November 2007, Yvonne donated her blood for the first time.

The day before the blood drive, I thought of all the excuses possible for me to not be able to donate blood. According to the guideline, one cannot donate blood if:

-one weighs less than 45 kg
-one has had less than 5 hours sleep the night before
-one is homosexual
-one has multiple sexual partners
-one has HIV+/ AIDS

OK. I think I can only admit to #1 and #2. Anyways, seeing the determination and willingness in my boss and colleague, Bin, I decided to just go for it. So I slept early the night before.

*Silently hoping that I would turn out to be 45kg or less tomorrow . -_-.

-Bin reading the fine prints-

Anyways, so Bin and I went first. It is also the first time for him and he seems to be more nervous than me. Me? I was still hoping that I would be 45kg or less. Anyways, he came up with excuses like, "I feel a bit weak. How come ah? I think I feel a headache". "Please lah!"

-My blood was tested-

Whatever. When the time came, we both filled in the forms and went for the tests first. It turned out that my blood type was B! Cool. So now I know. I was so excited watching them test my blood. The nurse politely smiled and explained but I think she thinks I have been living in the jungle for the past 22 years of my life.

Anyways, first test was the weight. I was 46kg! Shit.

Second test was the amount of iron in my blood. They will take a drop of blood and drop it into some solution and if that drop of blood sinks, it means that I have enough iron to donate. I passed this too! Shit.

Next, it was to proceed to the doctor to test my blood pressure. The doctor said, "Wow. So you actually passed the first stage. Let's see if your blood pressure pass too."

I asked her, "What normally happens when people like me donate?"

It seems people like me normally experience dizziness, feel weak or just plain faint. And probably cry during the donation because of fear. -_-.

-Trying to keep cool when the doctor said that my blood pressure passed too-

Huh! This was my last hope as an excuse to escape this scary experience. OK. I think I should just shut up and go ahead. I asked the doctor, "Are you sure?" before deciding that I should really just shut up and go ahead.

For the record, I wasn't forced into this. I wanted to do it for the experience but of course the little voice in my head went "siao ah?!"

Anyways, so there I was. Very excited. Bin was also excited but scared. So there goes. They made sure my name was correct and asked me to hold some cheap plastic cut off pipe. I thought I was going to get a red squishy rubber ball! OK. Maybe low on budget. Anyways, my veins were very easy to find so it proceeded without incident. You could locate my veins without even slapping my arm like how they slapped Bin's arm.

I was laughing all the way and instructing Jon, my trainee who was afraid of blood, to take photos for me to blog with.

"Jon, I want side view, ya! Can see the packet of blood not?"

Anyways, halfway through, Bin's blood stopped moving and so the nurses poked him again. It was very unfortunate for him because he ended up with some blue-blacks. Anyways, I kept on laughing at him and at the whole experince and that probably made my blood flow out faster and also fortunately made me forget that this was scary. The doctor even came over to look see. "Wah, you're still OK! Haven't fainted?"

Finally after about less than 15 minutes, 350ml of blood was out of my system.

"Whoa."

I thought 350ml would be like a can of coke. This was like crazy big packet. Like blood from my whole arm was inside. Surprisingly I did not feel weak or dizzy or faint or cry.

I was making so much noise calling Jon to come over and take photo of me with my packet of blood. The nurse kept if aside and when Jon came, he passed the blood to him. Jon was like, "wtf!" (No he didn't say it but I think he thought like that)

Then they said they have prepared some food for me. A cup of hot Milo, a packet of chocolate biscuits, a Red Bean bun and a packet of Yeo's soya milk. I thought I had to finish everything so I did. I forced everything down even though I didn't like Red Bean buns. I had Nasi Lemak for breakfast wei. I later found out that I could actually choose which one I wanted to eat. Oh.

Anyways, they also gave me a little red book to keep track of everytime I donate blood. I thought "Wah. They have so much confidence in me?" because the book has space up till # 112. Haha. Erm, I don't think I can fill it up in this lifetime.

The more you donate, the more benefits you will get when you visit the hospitals. You get upgraded to better wards and you get free outpatient treatments. Some could get free Hepatitis B jabs and so on. Wow.

Donate today and think about the lives you will save! It is not painful and it doesn't leave any scars. Cool stuff.

I told my dad excitedly through SMS that I donated my blood.

He replied, "I have been donating for years."

Show off!