Blood Blog

An email came into my mailbox at work on 1/11/2010.  The greeting to it reads,

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
"Good afternoon, previous Blood Donor,".
 
 
I don't really think that you can have any concept of what it means that I, Christopher Carl Hill, am  a "previous Blood Donor".  One of the most vivid, traumatic, and awful of my collegiate memories involves giving blood at A&M my Freshman year.
 
Today, as with the two other times that I have previously donated at work, was thankfully nothing like that awful day in the Commons area at A&M, but it did bear with it some creepy differences that each of us experiences while giving this life giving gift:
 
-Answering potentially awkward (and definitely some weird) questions about your life experiences.  (No, I don't have hep, thank you very much...mad cow either - I'll leave that to Nancy Pelosi, but that's neither here nor there.)
 
-Having someone that you don't know from Adam poke your finger to make you bleed (iron test), take your temperature, your pulse, and BP.
 
-Having yet another total stranger walk you over with a mess of tubes, plastic bags, and other medical paraphenalia to a folding, padded, mat where you will spend the next 10-30 mins on your back with a needle in your arm.
 
-Experiencing the - hopefully albeit momentary - terror of that total stranger stick a needle into your vein.  Terror for a number of reasons to different people...My terror involves the thought of the stranger missing the vein and having to go for "prick" two or three.
 
-Feeling the odd argument between your brain and your body about whether or not to kick in the fight or flight insticts due to the fact that your life blood is exiting your corpus....This is definitely the weirdest experience/feeling to me.
 
 
 
Everyone experiences those things in some way, shape, or form.  To some, they are not as bothersome as to others.  Thankfully, few experience what I did one time while giving blood at A&M.  The short version is that these two hags they had administering the blood drive missed my vein twice (once in each arm), berated me for having small veins (which is crap...I'm an athlete with large veins), and then proceeded to crack disturbing, sexual jokes about a "small vein".  I was mortified by the entire experience.  I never donated blood in college again.
 
After graduating, it came to my attention that they have blood drives here at COP on a quarterly basis.  After I saw a number of my collegues walking around with the cool, webbing/tape stuff that they put on your arm after you donate, I decided to face my fears and go for it again.
 
Thankfully, all of the GC Regional people are extremely professional.  Today, my "blood taker" for lack of the professional term was named Ryan.  He was AWESOME, super polite, and served several years in the marines.  I have now donated four times, and plan to continue embracing my fears each quarter for the duration of my time here in Houston.
 
 
 
That, folks, is my Blood Blog.  Random, yes. 
 
Mr. Hill