wherein Liz gives blood
Jan. 31st, 2014 11:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingToday I gave blood!
I haven't done that in ages. The last donation for which I have a concrete record was February 2005, nearly nine years ago. I am fairly sure I donated once after that -- I have a vague memory that I once gave blood at Cornell around noonish and then worked 4-9pm at the smoke shop the same day, and I wasn't hired there until January 2006 -- but I wasn't in the Red Cross's computer records so that incident certainly wasn't recent.
Anyway, the problem with donating blood is that most local blood drives are either up on the Cornell or IC campuses, or out in the suburban-ish outskirts of Ithaca, rather than downtown where I can easily get to them. Also, I tend to forget to stalk the Red Cross website to find when and where blood drives are being held. But! My church has started hosting blood drives -- today's was the second, and since they have gone well thus far, it looks like the pattern will continue -- which means they advertised in the church newsletter, and I had the day off from work, so yay!
It took longer than it really ought to have done, which was partly because I think they were slightly understaffed toward the end of the afternoon and partly because the person in charge of hooking up my bag and needles was kind of unsure what she was doing and probably stuck the needle in a bit wrong given that my blood flow was noticeably slower than it should have been, but it all worked out in the end.
I started giving blood pretty much as soon as I was able, back in high school, and continued the habit through my years living on or near the Cornell campus. It wasn't a huge part of my identity, but it was always something that made me feel good. I also turned my mom onto being a blood doner, which she kept up long after circumstances made it inconvenient for me to get to blood drives, not to mention I was turned down a couple times for being too anemic. (Which doesn't mean I had actual medical anemia, just that the Red Cross likes to make sure their blood units have lots and lots of wonderful red blood cells and I was kind of borderline for a while around 2004-2006 because I had cruddy eating habits. Which may or may not have been related to my depression and the instability of my employment/education status, but who can really say.) But my mom can't donate anymore since she's on blood thinners for a medical condition, and I've been feeling that I ought to pick up the slack, so to speak.
It's not a hugely logical reaction, but you know, the end result is that blood gets donated and I feel good, so eh, whatever. And now the Red Cross has my email, so hopefully I will be notified of future blood drives without having to stalk their website or rely on church newsletters. :-)
I haven't done that in ages. The last donation for which I have a concrete record was February 2005, nearly nine years ago. I am fairly sure I donated once after that -- I have a vague memory that I once gave blood at Cornell around noonish and then worked 4-9pm at the smoke shop the same day, and I wasn't hired there until January 2006 -- but I wasn't in the Red Cross's computer records so that incident certainly wasn't recent.
Anyway, the problem with donating blood is that most local blood drives are either up on the Cornell or IC campuses, or out in the suburban-ish outskirts of Ithaca, rather than downtown where I can easily get to them. Also, I tend to forget to stalk the Red Cross website to find when and where blood drives are being held. But! My church has started hosting blood drives -- today's was the second, and since they have gone well thus far, it looks like the pattern will continue -- which means they advertised in the church newsletter, and I had the day off from work, so yay!
It took longer than it really ought to have done, which was partly because I think they were slightly understaffed toward the end of the afternoon and partly because the person in charge of hooking up my bag and needles was kind of unsure what she was doing and probably stuck the needle in a bit wrong given that my blood flow was noticeably slower than it should have been, but it all worked out in the end.
I started giving blood pretty much as soon as I was able, back in high school, and continued the habit through my years living on or near the Cornell campus. It wasn't a huge part of my identity, but it was always something that made me feel good. I also turned my mom onto being a blood doner, which she kept up long after circumstances made it inconvenient for me to get to blood drives, not to mention I was turned down a couple times for being too anemic. (Which doesn't mean I had actual medical anemia, just that the Red Cross likes to make sure their blood units have lots and lots of wonderful red blood cells and I was kind of borderline for a while around 2004-2006 because I had cruddy eating habits. Which may or may not have been related to my depression and the instability of my employment/education status, but who can really say.) But my mom can't donate anymore since she's on blood thinners for a medical condition, and I've been feeling that I ought to pick up the slack, so to speak.
It's not a hugely logical reaction, but you know, the end result is that blood gets donated and I feel good, so eh, whatever. And now the Red Cross has my email, so hopefully I will be notified of future blood drives without having to stalk their website or rely on church newsletters. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-02 02:48 am (UTC)