Donating Blood
Today I gave blood for the second time ever. It was a really weird experience this time. First I went in the old gym of my school, which is where the donation was taking place, and filled out the form. After that I went with a nurse to a little area where she asks me some more questions(off the wall things like: Have you ever had sex with a man who had sex with another man in Africa?) and then she took my temperature. Next she took my blood pressure, which she said was really low, she then tried to take my blood pressure again and it was fine and she decided she had messed up on the first one. Then she pricks my finger and takes a drop of my blood to check if it had enough iron in it. She then told me to go into the area where you actually donate the blood. I laid down on a bed/table thing and an african american nurse by the name of Phylis introduced herself and asked if it was my first time donating blood and I told her no. She checked my paperwork and proceded with cleaning the area where she would "stick" me and then she did. She said I had really good veins. I gave blood very quickly, it took me about 2-3 minutes. After that I slowly sat up and walked over to the cookies and juice area (my favorite part) and got me some cookies(peanut butter) and some apple juice. My friend was next to me and I told her that I felt like crap and that I didn't feel that way the first time. About a minute after that I felt extremely tired and my friends voice and the voices around me started to fade. The head nurse was right there and told the ladies serving the cookies and juice to "ring the bell" which brought a few people over to help me lie down, the embarrasing part was that they had me lie down right there on the floor. They brought ice packs and smelling salts (the smelling salts was the worst part). There was a guy who asked me some questions and told me I had to lay there for a while. The head nurse told me I looked extremely pale. I laid there for a while and then he came back and asked me some more questions like: what was the first you remembered before you fainted. I told him about the voices fading. Then he said I could sit up slowly. I had to sit there for about 5 more minutes until he said I could get up, then he made me sit in this lounge chair for another five minutes, I ate some more cookies and drank my juice and I was allowed to leave. The crappy part was that I forgot to get my free t-shirt. Oh well.