Saving Lives, Narnia, Back to Amery, and more
Another week skipped, I apologize. However, there was lots of things that went down this past weekend that I look forward to commenting on. New experiences, more wrestling, Chronicles of Narnia, this one has it all folks. Please enjoy…
Friday [12/09/05] - The day before I heard an announcement at school about a blood drive the next day. I wanted so badly to give blood last year and I decided that I would definitely participate this year since I was old enough. However, I did not know you had to sign-up, so I didn’t and I was told on the bus ride to work from the other students that you had to sign-up by the end of fourth lunch on that day or whatever. I even called the school from work to see if I could sign-up that way but they said it was already all full.
So, I came to school not planning to give blood, I actually forgot there was a blood drive completely. That was until the beginning of second block when a very attractive peer came in with a teacher and told me that there were spots open and if I still wanted to I could give some blood. I happily agreed and left the classroom with said peer for a walk down to the athletic office. I asked her some questions while on the way about the whole blood thing.
We finally reached our destination and I filled out a bunch of forms and then finally made my way onto blood bus number one. It was a strange, but cool, little bus. There was a small isle down the middle of the bus, which was littered with female (and male) nurses. On each side of the bus, near the windows, were chairs that looked like a half circle. In the back of the bus were two, very small, rooms where I would later answer more questions.
Every seat was filled with a student. I first took notice of the girl closest to where I had taken a seat to wait, she was already tapped and the blood was flowing. Her blood bag was full so the nurse took the needle out of the vain, shortly after she did so the girl complained of everything getting blurry and feeling extremely hot. The nurses rushed into action, rotating her half-circle chair so her head was at a lower height. They put ice-packs on her head and neck, told her move her legs around, and give out some coughs.
She closed her eyes and then proceeded to get yelled at by the nurses about not closing her eyes. This whole scene scared me. I hadn’t ate breakfast at all and wasn’t feeling all that great to begin with. However, I manned-up and decided to go though with it. Besides I was already half-way through the whole procedure so I might as well have finished it. Shortly after that I got called into the, very small, back rooms for more answering questions, yay!
I was told earlier by attractive peer that brought me down to the blood bus that the part of the whole thing that hurt the most was when you got your finger pricked. The back room nurse lady checked my blood pressure, and then asked me some of the most ridiculous questions I have ever heard. Then, it was time for the prick of the finger. It hurt less than the girl made it out to be, but instead of making one nice little prick, for some reason the prick actually sliced my finger. I don’t know how this happened and she didn’t either, maybe my skin was too dry? After all of this madness I was let out with the go ahead to give some red.
When I got out of the room, which was so small I had to put my feet against the wall in order to fit (luckily I’m not claustrophobic), I took another seat while waiting for the nurses to get set. The girl that almost blacked out was now gone and nobody was in her spot. Shortly after I sat down, the nurse asked me which arm I would be using. After glancing down at both my arms I decided on the left one. She put me in the same spot as black out girl. By now, the butterflies were definitely there.
Immediately when I sat down and put my arm in the spot it was set to be in for 15 more minutes, my whole arm (especially hand) fell asleep, you know when it feels like ants are crawling all over it. I knew this probably wasn’t good because the blood flow to that area was soon to get much lower. I didn’t say anything. Nurse lady Elaine would be my blood taker, I’ve never met anybody named Elaine, I was going to ask her if she was named after the Elaine on Seinfeld, but I didn’t.
She introduced herself while she put a tourniquet on my upper arm. She gave me a little tube and told me to start squeezing while she looked for the vain. Nothing came up. Finally a little vain started to appear, but just barely. She questioned out loud whether it would be suitable, she decided it was and asked me if I was allergic to iodine. She put some on my arm and it tickled, I didn’t say anything though.
I was worried that she questioned whether the vain that came out was going to work. My mom has gone through an experience before with blood samples where the nurse missed the vain three times. I did not want this happening to me. Elaine came back and asked if I was ready, I said yes and she grabbed the needle. I turned my head and closed my eyes while the needle plunged into my vain. She set-up the tubing and walked away to tend to other blood givers.
I was extremely uncomfortable, my arm was even more asleep now. I started to get very warm. I tried to calm myself down, but it didn’t work. I asked one of the nurses how far along I was, she told me I was at 40 (out of 500). Now I was sweating and I felt like I was going to puke. I told one of the nurses how I was feeling and they rushed into action, much like they did with black out girl who I saw while waiting for the interview and prick of finger. They took the same exact measures and soon enough I was feeling better. My arm and hand even went numb, I was feeling good.
Before I knew it, I was done. The nurse took the needle out and told me to hold the cotton ball. She asked me which color of bandage wrap I would like. I chose pink, because real men wear pink. She wrapped me up and told me to stay still. She even grabbed me some pretzels and apple juice. I was living it up. Laying down, resting, free juice and pretzels, it was sweet.
I informed the nurse that I was ready to move and she told me to move up to the front of the bus, take a seat for a while, and grab some more treats. More treats! This was the greatest day ever. Not only was I getting all these treats, but while the nurse was instructing me of what to do after giving blood, she told me that I should not lift heavy things for over 24 hours. This meant that I could not work. Work off, free treats, savin’ lives, I felt like a million bucks.
I asked if I could go and they said I was ready. I finally left the blood bus and made my way back to class. My arm hurt like a bitch and may hair was all fucked up, but I couldn’t fix it because I couldn’t lift my arm high enough to. When I got back to the class all the kiddies asked me aboot the whole experience. I made up some lie about them letting me smoke ganja while they did it because it thins your blood or something, the funny part is they all believed it.
Paul brought me home on his way to work. I was doing fine, until I had the take the bandage off of my arm. It had been 2 hours or something like that so it was time for it to go. For some reason looking at the little wound made me nauseous and I had to lay down. I ended up falling asleep. The whole process takes a lot out of you, literally, heh.
Saturday [12/10/05] - Went to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe with Bobby and Kim. The theater was packed and we had to sit in the very first row by a large group of little kids. Amazingly throughout the coarse of the movie there wasn’t much talking, maybe because the movie was loud most of the time. The movie is absolutely phenomenal and if you haven’t already seen it, you should really go see it.
After the movie Bobby dropped Kim and I off at Venom’s place where we sat around for a while, watching some TV. Malikite and GVD were already there and Pun and Jenni would later join us. I think we played some poker and things of that nature. I spent the night at Kim’s house.
Sunday [12/11/05] - I woke up and got ready for the NIW event in Amery. Got a call from Brian seeing if he could ride with Bobby and I over to Drew’s place for ring loading. Bobby picked me up and we went to pick Brian up. Ring loading, always the same. Al decided to join us on our trek to Amery. Before heading off we stopped back at Brian’s for some beer and Christmas cookies. They were good, the cookies, not the beer.
Very fun event. I wrestled Tu-Gloccs. Got my ass handed to me on a silver platter. Had school the next day, so Bobby dropped me off at my place. Went to sleep, woke up the next day and that was that.
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Overall, a pretty sweet weekend. The whole blood thing was interesting. I’d love to do again when I can, saving lives is a cool thing. Thanks for reading everybody and sorry this one is a week late, not that anybody cares. I love you all!
Love.
Trent Jones. Who? Trent Jones.