Giving Blood - Part Ⅲ
blood nhs · 3 comments · 250 words
Last time it was a mid-pandemic trip to a giant shopping mall. This time, a pre-Xmas trip to a youth centre. Glamorous! I always feel slightly boring when I answer the pre-donation questionnaire. No, I haven't been travelling to exotic locations, having sex with multiple strangers in exchange for drugs and money. I could blame lockdown, but it's unlikely I'd be doing those things anyway!
Bit of an odd one this time. My blood was too "fizzy" to do the iron level drop - so they had to do it the old fashioned way. Then it turned out that my veins were too "flat". No idea what that meant, but a different nurse was able to exsanguinate me properly.
And then, the machine wouldn't stop bleeping. Apparently my flow was too low. So I raised my heart rate by thinking of exciting things. Like tonight's episode of Doctor Who!
The best thing about donating isn't the free drink (delicious purple flavoured isotonic water) nor the free snacks (crisps, chocolate, or popcorn this time) but the high-quality free stickers!
And so another 470㎖ of the good stuff is sent off to the bank. If you need blood in the next few weeks, I hope you will enjoy some organically-reared, vegan-fed, cruelty-free blood on me ☺
@Edent When I gave blood in the summer, a rather literal-minded nurse wouldn't let me go ahead until I assured her that Mrs Wife hadn't cheated on me without my knowledge while we were in Africa. (And I would have known this how...?)Mercifully, at my latest donation, no one thought to ask.
Ian says:
Did you know that Australia does not allow us poms to donate blood if we lived in the UK during the 'mad cow disease' era.
Merton Hale says:
I used to give blood as often as was allowed. Worked summers in hospital and became slightly aware of what goes on when the blood supplies run low. At unversity used to go with friends. I ALWAYS won the "who can fill the jar (it was jars back then) fastest. Then I spent a year in Vietnam during that "crazy Asian war." After that NOBODY wanted my blood, under ANY circumstances. Now i'm too old. But I did my bit, and was always the fastest. I think that is probably the only time I have been the fastest at anything. 😉