I lead such an exciting life that I fell asleep yesterday evening before I could write anything about my day here. Which is maybe just as well, since nothing much happened yesterday. Looking back on it, I can’t think of a single thing that separated it from any of a dozen other days.
Today was a little different. First I mailed some packages that needed mailing at the post office, and then I drove to a local mall to donate blood. I’m a semi-regular donor, so I get e-mails about the blood drives in my area, and apparently there’s an increased need for A+ blood, which is what I happen to have. I’m always happy to help when I can, and when it’s relatively convenient, so I drove over as a walk-in.
They were still in the process of setting up, inside an abandoned nail salon on the mall’s first floor, but despite the line of people already there (around 11 o’clock) I wasn’t waiting too long. In retrospect, I probably should have used the time I was waiting to do something productive, like take in some more fluids.
I wasn’t at all dehydrated, and I’d had breakfast. Like I said, I’ve given blood before and I know the drill. But I could have used more fluids. Because, for one, my blood just wasn’t coming out. The nurse technician spent a lot of time adjusting my arm, asking me to make a fist, release, and re-adjusting the needle. Which, honestly, was not fun. I’m not especially squeamish, but anything that reminds me there’s a large needle sticking into my arm — like looking at the blood circling out or a woman pulling the needle out, pushing it back in — is going to get to me.
After a while, it started to hurt, but it was bearable, and we seemed to have hit upon an arm placement that worked for getting the blood out of it.
And then I got to feeling light-headed, and that was all she wrote.
A few minutes earlier, the woman behind me had passed out. I couldn’t see it happen, but I heard them reviving her and calling her name. She seemed fine after, and it’s apparently not at all an uncommon occurrence — I’ve seen it happen a few times myself, including the very first time I gave blood, back in high school — but everyone was on heightened alert. They immediately put my feet up and my head back, put ice behind my head, and had me relax my arm.
If you tell them at a blood drive that you feel light-headed, they take that very seriously. I remember once, in college, I said, after donating, that I maybe felt a little dizzy. Like, maybe just enough that I wanted someone to hold my arm as we walked over to the juice and cookies, rather than going it alone. I didn’t feel really woozy. I did today, so I’m glad I said something. I felt better laying back, and apparently that’s all my arm needed to start giving up the blood. The tech joked that I didn’t want to do any work except lying down with my feet up, but it did seem to work.
After, I had some of the juice and pretzels provided, and then a bottle of water from the vending machine on my way out of the mall. They tell you to drink plenty of fluids. I didn’t drink enough going in; I didn’t want to repeat that mistake going out.
Beyond that, the day has actually been surprisingly uneventful. I watched an okay (but not amazing) movie called Criminal, and I watched some episodes of Cheers and Community. Yep, real exciting.