Be nice to me....

.....I gave blood today.


I love giving blood. Really. It's an easy way to do something nice for the world. It might not be like Ted Turner giving a billion dollars to the United Nations or Warren Buffett donating a kagillion bucks, but it's my way of contributing. And I'm good at it. I can fill that bag in less than 5 minutes.

Anyways, I told people at work I was giving blood today, and I got the usual reactions of "good for you" and "I guess you can leave early if it's for a good cause," but my favorite was "are you gonna pass out? Most people pass out." No, most people do not pass out. But they are the ones you remember. I always admire the people that know going in that they hate needles and that they are going to feel queasy, yet they give anyways. Good for them. It's a lot harder to do something nice for people when it makes you uncomfortable.

However, today I saw something new at the blood drive. As I took my seat on the little lawn chair and got ready to donate, the nurse told me she'd be with me as soon as she finished up with the guy to my left. So I'm sitting there patiently as she does her thing, when all of a sudden I hear "Trish! Trish! I need you now!" I look over, and this nurse had somehow poked a hole in the guys blood bag, or more specifically the tube leading to the blood bag. Blood is just dripping everywhere. Thank goodness she'd already clamped him off, or I think it might've been worse. The nurse is frantically trying to stop the blood from leaking out of the bag while telling everyone to look away, lest they get queasy and people start hitting the deck left and right. It was pretty awesome, I must say. They had to move me to another bed so they could decontaminate the area, which I was thankful for since I wasn't that keen on having Nurse Poke-a-Hole having a go at my left arm. Everything went pretty routine from there.

Although they wouldn't let me walk to the refreshment table without an escort, so they call over this tiny girl named Heather. She was probably about a foot shorter than me at a good 100 lbs lighter. She says in a chipper voice "I'll be right behind you," as if this is supposed to reassure me. I said "So.....you're going to catch me if I pass out?" She looks at me for a second and says "well, no, but I'll break your fall!" She gets my vote for volunteer of the day. Does her job well.