Sunday, June 19, 2011

Blackout

What's a blood donation without a story to go with it?

I was supposed to give blood a few weeks ago, after being hounded by the Red Cross. Instead, I pushed it off til today. I walked in the mild heat to the donation site, went through the preliminaries feeling fine then laid down the give blood.

About three quarters through my donation, the lady asked, "how are you feeling?" I responded, "fine." Then, a few moments later, I leaned farther down on the bed, and the lady repeated her question. I responded, as a haze descended over my eyes, "There I go..." and passed out.

It couldn't have been more than 30 seconds but in that time, I had the deepest sleep and a dream (if only I could remember) only to wake up to a beeping noise and people staring over me. I began trembling and shaking and breathing rapidly. Not to mention the pool of sweat. Yum.

A lady was telling me it would be ok and offering me juice. Although the donation was at a shul and the rabbi had given blood earlier, I still asked if the juice was kosher. (I had a different experience where it wasn't and I was supremely peeved.) Anyhow, they finished the donation and I was slick with sweat and feeling dizzy. I made it to the refreshment table and took two bites of a cookie when I put my head down and a lady guided me to a bed.

I laid down for a few minutes until my mother came to pick me up.

And now, more than five hours later I am sitting in bed, fighting off the heaviness in my head and writing this post.

For a first blackout it was rather exciting and (?) exhilarating, but most certainly not worth the Carvel ice cream my mother bought me after the donation when we went to the mall.

It was still yummy though.

5 comments:

  1. Wow. Hope ur feeling better off now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. oh wow! in all my blood donating days i never had such a dramatic experience. The only thing kinda close was in my first year in Israel. I went to the kotel with some sem friends for Bircat Cohanim and then met up with some of my high school friends.

    We ended up at the Mashbir where the blood donating truck was sitting. I had not had anything that day besides a cup of OJ, but somehow donated anyways. I was so dizzy once it was over i had to drink that nasty sugar water stuff they give you. But after a few minutes it was all good.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Scary!
    Hope by now you recovered somewhat!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Just seeing this. I blacked out after donating blood for the first time, in the Stern College gym. I got through the donation, and was sitting at the table drinking OJ when all of a sudden things started moving strangely and I thought, "Well that's weird." Next thing I know, I'm waking up on the floor.

    And yes, it was possibly the best sleep I ever had, all thirty seconds of it. I had just come off midterms and hadn't slept well in weeks, and after that I felt just fine!

    So yeah, I hear you. BTW, I have donated since then, several times, no problem. I just told the technician, and did some breathing exercises and relaxed. I also staying on the donating bed an extra five-ten minutes each time.

    ReplyDelete

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