YAY VAMPIRISM FOR CHARITY!!!
Went in to the Red Cross today trying for my record-breaking third straight deferral, only to be told that I do in fact have enough hit points to donate. Which is good. I'm a six hit-die monster, after all.
Over the course of previous donations, it has been established that my veins are:
1) exceptionally tiny
2) exceptionally mobile
3) equipped with valves at inconvenient locations, causing the blood to sometimes gush out and sometimes trickle out, unpredictably.
All of which makes it a pain to have blood drawn. Yet I still go to have it done. Not for my benefit, oh, no, but for the benefit of complete strangers. And it's not just a pain for me, it's a pain in the ass for the staff at the Red Cross. Sometimes I go in, they stick me, and everything is peachy. Sometimes they have to baby me through the whole process. Today the incredibly patient LPN sat beside me and physically HELD ON TO the needle to keep it in the middle of my vein instead of against the wall, so that blood would actually, you know, come out.
Yeah, I don't squick easily at needles, but this time I got a little faint.
But it's done, and that's three more lives potentially saved, so I can feel good about that even if I have a hole in me.
We're in the midst of a horrific blood shortage. We're operating on less than one day's worth of blood nationwide. Hospitals are rationing blood products. And this is just with everyday activity, normal wear and tear on the system. If a disaster hit, we'd be hosed. And this isn't because the Red Cross turns down too many people or because their rules are too strict, it's because eligible people are not donating.
I'm not telling you to go out and get stuck if you really don't want to or if for whatever reason you can't donate. I respect that. But if you've been thinking about donating, or if you haven't done it in a while, please drop by. It really is worth it.
Over the course of previous donations, it has been established that my veins are:
1) exceptionally tiny
2) exceptionally mobile
3) equipped with valves at inconvenient locations, causing the blood to sometimes gush out and sometimes trickle out, unpredictably.
All of which makes it a pain to have blood drawn. Yet I still go to have it done. Not for my benefit, oh, no, but for the benefit of complete strangers. And it's not just a pain for me, it's a pain in the ass for the staff at the Red Cross. Sometimes I go in, they stick me, and everything is peachy. Sometimes they have to baby me through the whole process. Today the incredibly patient LPN sat beside me and physically HELD ON TO the needle to keep it in the middle of my vein instead of against the wall, so that blood would actually, you know, come out.
Yeah, I don't squick easily at needles, but this time I got a little faint.
But it's done, and that's three more lives potentially saved, so I can feel good about that even if I have a hole in me.
We're in the midst of a horrific blood shortage. We're operating on less than one day's worth of blood nationwide. Hospitals are rationing blood products. And this is just with everyday activity, normal wear and tear on the system. If a disaster hit, we'd be hosed. And this isn't because the Red Cross turns down too many people or because their rules are too strict, it's because eligible people are not donating.
I'm not telling you to go out and get stuck if you really don't want to or if for whatever reason you can't donate. I respect that. But if you've been thinking about donating, or if you haven't done it in a while, please drop by. It really is worth it.