Thursday, October 19, 2006

The hazards of giving blood...

So Monday (snowy day!) I had an appointment to give blood at the university. Funny that the University has scheduled blood clinics...I would have thought that the crowd around there wouldn't be very conducive to getting good blood. Anyway, I went in, having drank a liter and a half of water, thinking I was good and full of excess blood. BUT, after going through all the steps for screening (regarding drugs and being Africa and...stuff) I finally got in a chair. I always ask for an experienced nurse because I have SMALL veins and have had bad experiences with nurses digging around in my arms trying to hit the vein. So this I did, but she STILL couldn't find the vein in my right arm, even the one closest to the inside of my arm. So...they bandaged my arm up with NEON PINK tape and put me in a chair for the opposite arm where they managed to find a vein with relatively little digging. For an idea of comparison, my brother takes about five minutes to donate a pint. I, on the other hand, took a whopping eighteen minutes...after which they bandaged my left arm up with NEON PINK tape. Good thing I had a long sleeved shirt to wear or I would have looked pretty humorous to my classmates... ah well, it was worth it. :) I got strawberry kiwi juice. :)

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