(no subject)
so...donating plasma: not as easy as it sounds. Kristin and I went in last wednesday and we were both tested to see if we were fit to donate. It turns out Kristin has 'weak veins' which are fine for donating blood, but not plasma. See, after they extract the plasma they pump your blood back in and if your veins are weak then they'll collapse which sounds pretty unpleasant...
My veins, however, were deemed usable and I had to have a physical which wasn't that bad because I was complimented on my cat-like-reflexes and i can also finally tell my mom once and for all that i'm not anemic. if you have a count of under 38 then you're anemic and i have 41 which is a little low but still healthy. HA! take that mom. after all of this they hooked me up and i spent 40 minutes watching Enceno Man with Brendan Fraser and REALLY wishing I could go to the bathroom.
After they're done extracting the plasma they pump saline into you to rehydrate your body. It's room temperature and they warned me it would be a little cool but by the end I was absolutely freezing. I made a mental note to bring a jacket with me next time. After they unhooked me I didn't feel too bad, just really cold. and I noticed i was a little slow, intellectually speaking. It took me 3 tries to get their kiosk to give me my hard earned 20 dollar bill which was quite embarrassing because the tech had walked me over and was telling me exactly what to do, i just wasn't processing what he was saying. he seemed a little confused as to why i kept on putting the days date instead of my birthday...
After we left I asked kristin to drive us to great clips (our next destination) and a good thing too because once we turned onto archer i started to feel nauseous. I laid my head back and noticed that everything looked blurry. My head started to buzz and I heard the radio drop out and could vaguely hear Kristin talking. I mumbled something dumb about not being able to hear and that we should pull over. At that point I think i blacked out for a little while because the next thing I knew we were at the BP by Jimmy Johns. I broke out in a cold sweat and somehow ended up in the bathroom. Skip to me leaving the bathroom. I felt much better and Kristin had bought me a snickers and water which i gratefully accepted. I was worried the chocolate would make me sick again but i guess I just needed the sugar boost because I was back to feeling completely normal. After all of that we still went to get our hair cut, which I am still getting used to. i now have layers.
I realize now how stupid I was and that I probably picked the absolute worst night to give plasma. The night before was the 4th of July and although I usually don't drink I decided to partake in the punch . I didn't get drunk but I was definitely buzzed and had more alcohol than I've ever had before in one sitting. I woke up late the next day and spent the morning reading and cleaning. There wasn't much food in the house so I just ate some potato chips and a plum, which turned out not to be enough. go figure.
I plan on going again this Wednesday and I'll make sure to eat properly before hand and then I think I'll have a nutri-grain bar ready to go for afterwards and I'll wait about 20 minutes before leaving, just in case. I'm pretty sure my lack of preparedness is what caused the wooziness and that I'll be fine from now on...
so, did this persuade anyone else to donate as well? i could use a buddy. we can get chinese afterwards! if nothing else at least you'll walk away with some cash and a war story. and think of the people. they need you...
My veins, however, were deemed usable and I had to have a physical which wasn't that bad because I was complimented on my cat-like-reflexes and i can also finally tell my mom once and for all that i'm not anemic. if you have a count of under 38 then you're anemic and i have 41 which is a little low but still healthy. HA! take that mom. after all of this they hooked me up and i spent 40 minutes watching Enceno Man with Brendan Fraser and REALLY wishing I could go to the bathroom.
After they're done extracting the plasma they pump saline into you to rehydrate your body. It's room temperature and they warned me it would be a little cool but by the end I was absolutely freezing. I made a mental note to bring a jacket with me next time. After they unhooked me I didn't feel too bad, just really cold. and I noticed i was a little slow, intellectually speaking. It took me 3 tries to get their kiosk to give me my hard earned 20 dollar bill which was quite embarrassing because the tech had walked me over and was telling me exactly what to do, i just wasn't processing what he was saying. he seemed a little confused as to why i kept on putting the days date instead of my birthday...
After we left I asked kristin to drive us to great clips (our next destination) and a good thing too because once we turned onto archer i started to feel nauseous. I laid my head back and noticed that everything looked blurry. My head started to buzz and I heard the radio drop out and could vaguely hear Kristin talking. I mumbled something dumb about not being able to hear and that we should pull over. At that point I think i blacked out for a little while because the next thing I knew we were at the BP by Jimmy Johns. I broke out in a cold sweat and somehow ended up in the bathroom. Skip to me leaving the bathroom. I felt much better and Kristin had bought me a snickers and water which i gratefully accepted. I was worried the chocolate would make me sick again but i guess I just needed the sugar boost because I was back to feeling completely normal. After all of that we still went to get our hair cut, which I am still getting used to. i now have layers.
I realize now how stupid I was and that I probably picked the absolute worst night to give plasma. The night before was the 4th of July and although I usually don't drink I decided to partake in the punch . I didn't get drunk but I was definitely buzzed and had more alcohol than I've ever had before in one sitting. I woke up late the next day and spent the morning reading and cleaning. There wasn't much food in the house so I just ate some potato chips and a plum, which turned out not to be enough. go figure.
I plan on going again this Wednesday and I'll make sure to eat properly before hand and then I think I'll have a nutri-grain bar ready to go for afterwards and I'll wait about 20 minutes before leaving, just in case. I'm pretty sure my lack of preparedness is what caused the wooziness and that I'll be fine from now on...
so, did this persuade anyone else to donate as well? i could use a buddy. we can get chinese afterwards! if nothing else at least you'll walk away with some cash and a war story. and think of the people. they need you...