Day 38: 2/7/13 - Give Blood Without Passing Out!

Day 38: 2/7/13 - Give Blood Without Passing Out!                       
New Thing- Giving blood for the first time without passing out since I was a teen.     
Inspiration: Grandpa REF        
Time: About an hour, but bleeding for like 10 mins.                    
Bottom Line: Bloody good show!

Be nice to me! I gave blood today!

Reflection: My maternal Grandpa, Robert, was a champion blood donor while he was still alive giving about 20 gallons all total (he was also of the trickiest people I have ever known). As a teen, I was very inspired by his witness and decided that I would try and meet his record and signed up for the first blood drive to come to our high-school. That semester, I was also taking a gourmet cooking class which (since this was NEPA in Appalachia) happened to include elk preparation that morning. Like-you-do. (Hillary Fun-Fact: Elk is my favorite type of game-meat) This actually turned out to be a very fortuitous "gourmet" coincidence because put my iron levels through the roof and I made it through the blood-letting process without a problem.

So, I was well on my way to a life-time of blood-donation. Or so I though. The next time I gave, I did not have the magic elk iron coursing through my veins but thought that would be no matter. Even though I did make a donation, I ended up passing out at the cookie table when I was done. I remember waking up on the floor of the gym being scooped up by a foot ball player who was taking me to a nurse with several cheerleaders around him. That was the closet I ever got to hanging out with the cool kids.

It was down hill for me and blood giving after that. I tried again a few months latter and passed out at the part when they prick your finger to test your iron levels. I didn't even make it to the table that time. I went again a year after that and was told that "passer-outers" were not even welcome to try. Then I started traveling to countries on the "no" list for diseases and so had to wait several years to even try again.

All this was weird to me since I really am not squeamish around blood at all. For some reason, the whole process (especially the finger part) just got into my head. Well, today was the day to change that. Matt and Ken and I went out to lunch where I had steak fajitas to re-create that magical elk powers I had the first time. After that, it was back to St. David's to check into the blood drive. I made it through the finger prick by using my yoga "ujiayi breathing" to calm down the all-to-firmular butterfly feeling that started to creep into my head and stomach which had heralded the break with consciousness in the past. Then it came time to bleed into a bag which was alright as long as I kept breathing or talking to other people. Finally, when it was all done, I received my delicious "blood cookie" (as Lia Lemon calls it) and a scolding from my nurse for waiting till the end of the whole process to tell her I was prone to passing out. "I would have told you not to give!" she said. "Exactly," I said. I think my Grandpa would have been proud--both for the giving of blood and the deception. Did I mention he was a craft fox? :)