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I donated blood today. I thought I would simply be there for half an hours, have them stick the thing in my arm and be done..wa-how....no..
First thing you do it read this big folder of info on who can donate and who can't. That takes a good 20 mins to look over. Next is you have to wait in line for 30 mins. Luckily I brought cards with me. After you do that, you go to these small office-like things where nurses ask you about 50 questions which can be all passed if they simply asked if you've ever been outside the U.S. or have ever had sex. But no! And then you have to get your finger pricked so they can test your iron level.
Then you go to the place where they have about 5 other people with tubes coming out of them and blood dripping into little pouches..that's kinda creepy..
So then I lay down on the table thingy and they keep saying that I'm lean..yea, thanks, I know.. And they they don't give me a pillow and say that I need to put my legs up! WTF?! I'm not going to f-in pass out on you guys!...
Then they wipe your arm with iodine and let it dry for a few seconds. After that, they stick your arm with this f-in huge needle! Fortunatly for me, I got the newbie docter who couldn't find my vein. He's all like, "I'm going to move the needle around a bit to try and find the vein." I'm like, "Sure." And then he starts poking the inside of my arm with this huge needle, suddenly he turns around, the needle still in his hand. I'm like eek and it hurt! He had to get another docter to come over and do it for him...which still hurt...
Then they leave you alone for 10 minutes while your blood drains from your body.
I shot the breeze with the docter guys while it happened, asking why it was hard to stick my vein..then he told me all about why it keeps flowing, because my body doesn't know where it is injured. At that moment, my blood vein closes. This is when I need about 2% more of the bag to fill. He says "Ah s**t!" I'm like. eek
He tells me my blood stopped going and then pokes the needle in more! I'm like, "That's very nice.." While I'm looking at this metal thing in my arm..
He finally pulls it out and tells me that they can't use my blood because it didn't fill all the way. So that's a pint of blood, and 2 HOURS waste of my time..HURRAY!