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1:03 a.m. - 2005-06-04 The first thing Heather said to me when she walked in, was, "I am SO nervous." You could see it all over her face. So, I tried to be comforting and to lighten things up a bit by appearing confident and easy-going. I guess it worked because when we went up and sat in the outside room together reading the "what you need to know before you give blood" pamplet, the nurse took one look at her and gave her a "first time donater" sticker, then looked at me and said, "You must have done this lots of times." I said I hadn't, it was also my first time. The nurse was shocked by my manner until I told her I was only their to keep heather from falling apart. She grinned as she seemed to have understood and then told me to go into the room and wait. So, I went in 5 minutes after Heather and sat in front of a divider. After Heather had registered, it was my turn, and she went to get her vital signs checked. I'm suprized they let her do it, she looked like she was about to have open-heart surgury. I went into the same compartment to get my vitals checked, and they must have agreed that I was alive after all, because they sent me over to the chair. I told Nurse R. that when I had gotten blood work done in the past, it was very difficult for the nurses to find a good enough vien, but it was usually in my right arm. So she put a strap across my upper right arm and looked for upwards of 3 minutes before calling another nurse over. The other nurse took over that strapped arm while R. went round the other side, strapped that arm, and looked. So, while my right arm was turning purple, and two nurses where looking somewhat purplexed, heather was just making it over to the chair. They finally found one in the left arm. I could watch the entire proceedure with animated curiosity, except for the part of the needle going in. Its not that I'm too afraid of the needle, its just that I've always felt like I would jump if I watched it pierce my skin. It did, and I found something out. IT DIDNT EVEN REALLY HURT! A tiny pinch and it was done, over! I looked at the nurse and said, "That was it? That wasn't bad at all!" Then a very shaken up Heather scarilly asked, "It-it wasn't?" "No, no big deal at all, no problem!"
"Well, by this rate you will be done by tomorrow. Let me just ajust a bit and you should get back on thrack." Have you ever had someone WIGGLE a needle inside of your arm? HURTS LIKE HECK. It hurt more than getting the needle in. After about 10 minutes of that I was done. They asked if I felt lightheaded or anything, and I truly believed I would, but felt no different. I got my cookie and my juice, sat down, and waited for Heather, who, by the way, passed out twice durring the process. So, its been 20 minutes since I sat down, I feel fine, Heather gets some of the color back in her face. The look of happy relief was fairly evident on her face. She insisted she was fine, we got our free shirts. (Light grey, great, now I have 5 Designware shirts in GREY!!) So we go downstairs, I get on register, its all fine and dandy, until an hour goes by and I'm two seconds away from throwing up and passing out. IT hit me in a flash, another girl I work with looked at me and told me to go sit down. All the color had drainned from my face and I started swaying back and forth. I sit down, I have some water, ten minutes later I'm fine, so I go back out. I'm not even back five minutes and I'm getting woozy. I tell the other girl I needed to sit down. This time I was sitting down with my head on the table for 25 minutes. I made myself get up, locked the front door five minutes early, counted down my drawer, went home and fell asleep. I don't think I'm signing up for next year. Unless I get the rest of the day off. And theres a lot of water.
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