That's the title I could think of for today's post because it is related to BLOOD!
My school is currently celebrating their 83rd foundation week. So, our Institute of Nursing has come up with an event where different institutes will compete on which one will have the most blood donated to the Philippine National Red Cross. So, as you might have guessed.. I donated my blood yesterday!
It all started when my friend K and JR wanted to donate their own blood, and so they also asked me if I wanted to join them. We have already decided a week before that we were really going to donate our blood, but I myself, the coward, was really scared and told myself that maybe they will just forget about it, and in the end they didn't! ^^ So yesterday, K and JR told me that they didn't have their 4.30 to 6.00pm class so they looked for me and told me that, "Let's go donate out blood now!", and I was like :o ... They were so excited to donate their own blood, that I told myself that it will be for a good cause, so I must face my fear of needles and any medical stuff.
When we arrived at the location, we were first weighed to check if we can or not donate blood. It was some sort of an elimination round so in the three of us, K was eliminated because she was below the weight needed to donate blood so then there were 2 of us! JR and I... The next step was the interview! We were asked of our past medical records and I passed, JR DID NOT, because he had Dengue last year and he has to wait 6 months before he can start donating blood again! SO! :o I was left alone! The next step was taking my blood pressure and heart rate at the moment. My heart rate was 83beats/minute, because I was so scared, while my blood pressure was 130/70 which the volunteer said was a bit high but I could still donate. :/ Next was the blood test, to check what your blood type is. I already knew that my blood type was "O", but they still have to check for it so they pricked my finger and it hurt a lot! I did not shout or cry because it didn't hurt THAT much that it made me wanted to do so. After knowing and confirming that my blood type was "O", I was sent to the physician or doctor who will interview and ask me questions, people in the previous stations/steps have already asked me!
After all those, I was assigned or sent to a bed (well just the bed we use if visitors are around, and not the literal big bed we usually sleep on) where I will be injected and blood will start flowing out of my body! I am a big person, so whenever I am going for blood tests, people or the medical technicians from the laboratory should inject me a lot of times before they can hit a vein, so when it was my turn, I told the volunteer to please be good and just inject the needle once because it ain't a joke to be injected a lot of times! :> She told me that she will try her best and then there she goes! She injected me and voila, she hit the right vein and I was so glad. I must truthfully say that it didn't hurt as much as I expected it to hurt. It was just like an ant bite haha... She gave me a stress ball that I should keep on pressing on my palm every 5 seconds so that the blood will come out a little faster. It took around 5 - 10 minute for my blood bag to be filled and after which I had to stay lying down for some precautions, then I was then discharged.
As a remembrance or souvenir, they gave me a whistle! hahaha and a card to show that I have donated blood and it shall serve as my logbook. :>
front of the card
back of the card*I used my webcam to take the pics so the quality is not good! ^^
What have I learned from this experience?
- It feels great to be able to donate a blood and to be able to pass all the tests.
- It only takes a few minutes for a blood bag to be filled.
- You can only donate blood every three months.
- It really just feels great to do something for someone you don't really know but know that he/she will appreciate what you have done! :D
take care and God bless...
