Saving Lives

I have always been a scaredy cat. Pretty proud of it too. I was afraid of needles, anything to do with medicine or surgery or being sick. 

Giving blood was something that I never thought I would do. Ever.

With the combination of needles, blood and the possibility of passing out just scared me to death. But last year when I made my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days, I added "donate blood" to that list and figured it would be something that probably wouldn't actually happen. ha.

Well, I've realized a lot in the last couple months that I'm missing out on a lot in life by being scared, afraid and worried about outcomes and I should just do it. Just live in the moment. Just do what I want to do because I can.

So last week when I got an email about a blood drive being done in my office building, I signed up.  And I didn't sleep hardly at all the night before.

Just a little over a year ago I had to have blood drawn for medical reasons (I thought I had blood sugar issues - I didn't) and I literally cried all week before I had to go. And my dad had to take me. I cried. And they put me in the room with all of the cartoon posters for kids. I was THAT person. 

Tyler has had to go with me to get shots and Tb tests before. My pathetic-ness was just that, pathetic.

So why was I so scared? Well, when I was 16 I volunteered at a blood drive hosted by my high school student council. I was all excited and they assigned me to be a 'runner' (I took the blood from the patient/nurse to the table for processing). Well wouldn't you know the very first person I helped at my very first blood drive had a seizure, wet her pants and had to be taken out in the ambulance. 

Not exactly the best first impression of what giving blood is like. So from then on I only worked at the registration desk and never once thought about giving blood myself.

And I'm proud to say that today I donated blood. I seriously never thought I would ever do this.

All ready to go!

My arm before any pokes.

My nurse lady said I had amazing veins for donating blood. Her exact words were "That vein is so big a blind man could put a needle in it!" Umm, thanks?

All prepped and ready to go.

Saving babies.

That's my blood! I filled everything really quickly. She was amazed since I'm kind of small and a first time giver.

Adam was done before I started, so he took a picture. I was so proud of myself. :)

It didn't take long AT ALL for me to actually pump the blood. I was a blood donating rock star!

And then when I was all done and super proud of myself, I got really hot, sweaty and they had to lay be down with a fan and wet rags. Yep, I was THAT person.

Making blood flow with my feet propped up.

I had to lay there for about a half hour because I was so pale/frail.

I played lots of games of Scramble with Friends while pumping and recovering. Can you believe "OSU" didn't count as a word?

I didn't eat lunch before donating (MISTAKE!) so I ate about 22 pieces of Danato's pizza after I was done! Best lunch ever!

All bandaged up!

Overall it was a good experience. I will do it again someday. I don't know about every 8 weeks, but I will definitely do it again. I mean, I'm helping save lives!