Bloody Drive

(originally posted at eclaircie.diaryland.com)

Just so you know, giving blood was worst than expected. It went swimmingly at first. I confirmed that I hadn’t had sex with someone from Nigeria, etc. I sat down next to good ol’ Becky Connolly, of all people to happen to be giving blood at the same time as I, who was able to give me all the exciting news from wonderful Lafayette Indiana Stake. (“Brad Porter’s on his mission now.” “Really? Where’d he go?” “I don’t know.” “How’s his girlfriend taking it?” “I don’t know.” “You suck.”). And then sat there and listened to Coldplay and tried not to think about the needle invading my arm. Well apparently I have small veins and low blood pressure so it took me twice as long as anyone else to get the bag full. But whatever, not a huge deal. The bigger deal was how I got up afterwards, went to the snack table and suddenly felt like I was going to vomit and then my vision blacked out. It was only for a second, but it was a terrifying second, I assure you. So I hurried over to sit down and happened to sit next to a guy I’d met waiting in line earlier. He tried to talk to me, but I just shook my head, too weak or too shaken up to say anything, and he realized something was wrong and went and got me water and a nurse. I lay down for a while, right there on the floor of the Wilk. Eventually all was well. But I did end up being quite late to work. I hadn’t planned on needing half-an-hour to recover after giving blood.

Part of the tests they did before was taking my blood pressure. Apparently I have 90/60. The nurse said “Wow, that’s low. That’s good, though.” I’ve never really thought about blood pressure before, so after it all I spent some time researching it. And depending on what source you go by, I either have the very bottom rung of normal blood pressure, or I actually have low blood pressure, which some accounts will say is a bad thing and means I’m prone to weakness and fatigue and fainting. But at any rate, I’m not going to die of a stroke or heart attack anytime soon. Well, I suppose I can’t just assume that, but my odds are extremely good.