Give Blood, Give Life and Pass Out!

I didn't start donating blood until I was about 35 years old. My buddy John in Temecula and I finally convinced one another that it was time to stop being wusses and that we cold survive a blood donation. Once we did it, I was hooked so to speak. I was a pretty regular donor, all incident-free. I even started doing the double red blood cell donation when we moved to Chicagoland. After I went to Kolkata and Chennai, India, at the end of 2006, I found out that I could not give blood for an entire year.

So this morning, I was looking forward to our Church Blood Drive. My first opportunity to hop on the Bloodmobile and donate away since the one-year ban ended. I had signed up for the double red procedure again as well. I was the first one there, got my forms filled out, and climbed about the Mobile.



The staff was great and got me started pretty quickly. So I don't know how much time had passed, but I know I had finished the "This American Life" podcast on my iPod and had just selected a Mozart piece when I felt myself getting really hot and that was it. FADE TO BLACK. Next thing you know, I look up and I have the faces of three staffers in my face, my legs are being shaken by one of them, and they are covering me in cold, cold compresses. They are peppering me with questions - "Do you know where you are?" "How do you feel?" "Do you know what you are doing here?" I just wanted to know what had happened. It felt like I had been down for about twenty minutes. Apparently, it was just a matter of seconds.

I guess it was pretty exciting for the Bloodmobile staffers. They were on me like white on rice. I was really concerned that they had not been able to get the donation. They had to yank out the needle as soon as I blacked out. In doing so, I got a cool spray of blood across my jeans. They were mortified about that - even offering to get my jeans dry-cleaned. So not necessary, really. So more questions - more vitals and then out came the Gatorade and the chocolate chip cookies. I really felt fine pretty darn quickly. But then more questions - "When you seized, did you lose control of your bowels?" That was the question of the day - it was an easy response.

ME: "Look if that had happened, every last one of you would know. There would not be a lot of happy in the Bloodmobile if that had happened."

THEM: Lots of laughter and a big thank you. Apparently, things get messy sometimes at the Bloodmobile when people pass out.

More fretting about my bloody jeans - I told them that I was going to tell people I got into a knife fight with Lindsay Lohan.

So the good news is that they were able to get the blood that they needed from me but they couldn't get my plasma back in me. They showed me my bag o'plasma. Who knew that your plasma (well mine at least) looks a little bit like a bag of foamy pee (sorry!) - same color and foamy top. So anyway, I'm kind of down for the day. Lots of fluids and food. I'm just glad that they got what they needed. This blood donation thing is pretty important. Get out there and donate if you can!