So, yesterday it was time to go donate blood again, so I toddled to the Coop (actually hubby picked my up after work and we drove LOL!), got signed in and eventually got a seat to get stuck.
Things were going well, tho the gal on the other side of the aisle from me was having problems and the tech who was going to work on me was having a time trying to get blood out of her. He had to serious adjusting, but eventually they had to give up and she was only able to give a little bit.
I was listening in on their conversation and he was telling her that even tho she didn't give enough for transfusions and such, her blood would be put to educational uses.
Then the poor guy had to deal with me. Honestly, I wasn't trying to be difficult. He found a good strong vein in my right arm, got the needle in and *POOF* the vein went a way. Poor guy spent a good 10 minutes or so trying to find one. We eventually decided to go for the other arm.
Here is my poor right arm today:
So I switch couches and we start again. He finds a great vein in my left arm, gets the needle in and away we go. For a little while. After about 10 minutes or so, the machine starts beeping as the blood flow has slowed down. The poor tech starts working on my arm again, finds several candidates and does his best to get the blood going again.
Seems if I move even the slightest, the veins go wonk and that is that. I drank plenty of water yesterday so I shouldn't have been dehydrated, but the blood getting thick like that and slowing down was a symptom of it, but it shouldn't have happened.
We finally called it a day and I now have this on my left arm:
Just realized, looks like an eye!
They sent me home with a cold compress to put on my arms and instructions for warm compresses for the next couple of days. My elbows ack from the stress and I'm popping ibuprofen like crazy.
So the game plan for the next time I donate is to double up the amount of water I take in before hand, which means a LOT since I already drink upwards of 2 liters as is over the course of the day. Hopefully next time it won't be so bad.
I'm blaming it all on the fact it was a full moon yesterday.
Things were going well, tho the gal on the other side of the aisle from me was having problems and the tech who was going to work on me was having a time trying to get blood out of her. He had to serious adjusting, but eventually they had to give up and she was only able to give a little bit.
I was listening in on their conversation and he was telling her that even tho she didn't give enough for transfusions and such, her blood would be put to educational uses.
Then the poor guy had to deal with me. Honestly, I wasn't trying to be difficult. He found a good strong vein in my right arm, got the needle in and *POOF* the vein went a way. Poor guy spent a good 10 minutes or so trying to find one. We eventually decided to go for the other arm.
Here is my poor right arm today:
So I switch couches and we start again. He finds a great vein in my left arm, gets the needle in and away we go. For a little while. After about 10 minutes or so, the machine starts beeping as the blood flow has slowed down. The poor tech starts working on my arm again, finds several candidates and does his best to get the blood going again.
Seems if I move even the slightest, the veins go wonk and that is that. I drank plenty of water yesterday so I shouldn't have been dehydrated, but the blood getting thick like that and slowing down was a symptom of it, but it shouldn't have happened.
We finally called it a day and I now have this on my left arm:
Just realized, looks like an eye!
They sent me home with a cold compress to put on my arms and instructions for warm compresses for the next couple of days. My elbows ack from the stress and I'm popping ibuprofen like crazy.
So the game plan for the next time I donate is to double up the amount of water I take in before hand, which means a LOT since I already drink upwards of 2 liters as is over the course of the day. Hopefully next time it won't be so bad.
I'm blaming it all on the fact it was a full moon yesterday.
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