Tried to do a good deed
But somehow it didn't work out and now my poor arm has to suffer. My building had a blood drive today, and like the good person I am I signed up to donate. I head down at my scheduled time and the woman takes one look at me and asks if I'd like to do a double red donation. I didn't really have anything pressing at work and I figured it would be a good thing to do so I said what the hell, why not? I fill out the paperwork, go through the standard tests and eventually sit down in the faux-lounge chair to start. It looked like it would be kind of cool. They hooked me up to this funky machine that was basically going to suck the blood out of me, separate it in a centrifuge to take just the red blood cells out, and put back in me whatever it doesn't need. Pretty cool, huh?
So they finally stick me with the needle and for some reason even though it was a smaller needle it hurt a whole lot more. Then the tech was having problems collecting enough blood to take sample vials with. So they took the needle out slightly and that was kind of my arms undoing. So they start the process and the blood is flowing out of me nicely. I notice the machine spinning away, separating it out into three bags, one for the blood from my arm, one with the red blood cells and one with the plasma and everything else.
When it came time to put everything that the machine didn't need back in is when the trouble started. They said I should be able to feel it going back in and I sure felt something, a whole lot of stinging and pain. Turns out the needle wasn't in correctly or enough so instead of pumping the plasma and stuff back into my vein, it was putting some into my vein and some into the tissue surrounding it, making my arm puff up like crazy from all the fluid. So they had to stop before they ever got a chance to take another batch of red blood cells, and the techs apologized profusely to me and said I'd probably have a nice bruise on my arm to show for it. I can't wait.
And I should also have my head examined while I'm at it. While I was enjoying the complementary apple juice and Oreo's as my treat they coerced me into signing up for a platelet donation in September. That works kind of similar to what I just did except they spin the blood to take just the platelets and put everything else back in with some saline, which I'm told makes you really, really cold. I'm doing it in the beginning of September, so hopefully the air will warm me right up. Apparently I have a blood type that makes them want my platelets because they keep hounding me to donate them. I must've gotten two letters in the mail promising a $25 gift card to Best Buy just for donating. Something tells me I'm not going to get one this time, but we'll see. Hopefully this time when I try to do a good deed it won't end up biting me in the ass, or severely bruising my arm.
Comments
LOL What a mess! I'm impressed that you still signed up for the one in September. I've never been able to donate blood before, it seems like every time they come to my office there's a reason I can't do it. I got a piercing too recently, I got a tattoo too recently, I went to Haiti, etc. In fact, I don't know if I can ever donate again based on the Haiti thing - I need to check into that. Either way, it was like a several year waiting period before I could donate again.
Posted by: Jenniy | June 15, 2004 7:36 PM