All that blood and gore

Today was the school blood drive. Since I'm in NHS, I got to volunteer to set up and work the drive, but I also wanted to donate blood, so I signed up for that as well. I was really nervous about the donation part. I'm not a huge fan of needles or blood. Not scared to death of them, but not a huge fan. Anyways, right away they had me fill out forms, making sure I didn't have AIDS or malaria or a cold. Then they took me into this little partitioned-off area with a computer inside. There they recorded basic info.-birthday, address, etc.

And then...The nurse whipped out a lancet and JABBED me with it. It hurt really bad, too. Maybe because it was unexpected, maybe because she went down so far she hit bone, you never know. At that point I was about to cry, so luckily the nurse left me alone to fill out a few more forms. I had finished and was reciting state capitals to calm myself down when the other nurse (I don't know if they're really nurses-they may just be volunteers) came in (pretty sure he heard me say, "Alaska. Juneau," because he gave me a really strange look) to get me for the actually blood-harvesting part.

Surprisingly, it wasn't too bad. I was actually sickly fascinated with watching my own heart's blood flow through a tube into a little bag. I was also talking to the guy (nurse? Volunteer?) who was collecting my blood. He was really nice. When it was all over, I pretty much hopped off the cot-I was just so glad that it was over and I was alive.

I headed over to the snack table (they make you eat afterwards to get your blood sugar back up), still feeling chipper. Alex Walter was working the concession area, and he gave me a glass of water and told me I was supposed to drink the whole thing before eating anything. I had just sat down to drink it when all of the sudden it hit me. My head started spinning like crazy. It was like the two lobes of my brain were trying to seperate-I couldn't focus on anything. I remember that I told Alex to get a nurse, and then everything went black. Next thing I knew I was being helped onto a stretcher and wheeled over to another partitioned area. The nurse gave me a wet paper towel for my forehead and had me put my knees up and breathe into a paper bag (my first time).

I felt instantly better. Well enough, in fact, to start laughing. Hysterically. I don't know what was so funny, honestly. The whole situation-me fainting in the gym, being carted away like I was dying, breathing into a paper bag-just seemed so hilarious. I think the nurse thought I was losing my mind.

Anyway, after that little ordeal was over I got to go back to class, and then to work when school ended. Work was hard. I was so tired all of the sudden (evidently that can happen), that I was just kind of stumbling around.

So that was my big blood drive ordeal. Even though it actually turned out to be fairly traumatic for me, I think I'll do it again in the spring. After all, I don't know how many people I know who've had blood transfusions. I'll probably need one myself someday. If I can at least make a small difference, I think a little dizziness is worth it.