Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Blood

Last week I went to the local church to participate in the Blood Drive. I was pretty excited about it. First time in 36 years that I would be donating blood. And let's be honest here, my blood is pretty damn good.

When I got there. I saw Dug sitting on a table donating.

I signed in, and was handed a questionnaire to complete. The questions quickly got into the specifics such as:
  • Have you ever spent more than 3 months in Tobago or Curacao?
  • Did you receive injections of human growth hormone for short stature or human pituitary hormones for infertility between 1968 and 1999?
  • Is it possible that any member of your family has suffered from any form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease?

And then a bunch of questions about sexual activity etc..

After completing the form, I was asked to sit and wait for 30 minutes.

I was then pulled back into a room to get my finger pricked and some testing before the actual donation.

The first thing I was asked after being pulled into this room was :

  • "Have you recently had a Cold?"
  • "Yep" I replied.
  • "How many days since your last cold symptom?".
  • "Well, I still have a little Cold"
  • "Oh, I'm sorry, you need to wait 7 days AFTER your most recent Cold symptom before donating blood"

Are you kidding me? Isn't that one of the first questions you should have asked me when I showed up? Isn't the common Cold a much more frequent occurrence than someone who spent 3 months in Tobago?

Weird.

And then there is Sam who refused to donate blood because he didn't want to experience a decline in his hematocrit level. Had a big race on Saturday.

I'm not sure if I was more upset for being rejected or that fact that Sam didn't show up. A $10 bill would have bought some of Sam's blood and I would have walked outta there a much stronger cyclist.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

i like that you CAN have traveled to china in the last year, but if you've traveled BETWEEN cities in china, well, then you can't donate.

so, to be clear, if you fly into, say, bejiing, and then fly out of bejiing, good to go.

but if you fly into bejiing, but fly out of, say, shanghai, well, then you CAN'T donate.

but they don't tell you that until you've been there for at least 30 minutes.

Anonymous said...

What happened in Tobago that didn't happen in Trinidad? I need to get this blood donating list of Countries to avoid travel to.

KanyonKris said...

Thank you for reminding why I don't donate blood. It has nothing to do with my loathing of needles caused by traumatic childhood experiences. I'm simply a conscientious objector to such privacy intrusions.

Yeah, I need to donate blood. It helps me keep the needle phobia at bay and it helps people in need.

What do you mean "$10 would have bought some of Sam's blood"? If you'd offered him $10 to donate he would have done it?

Anonymous said...

I am sorry. I didn't know it was my blood you wanted to buy. I thought you were offering $10 for other body fluids!

Rick Sunderlage said...

sam- that's just gross.

South County Ciclista said...

Shouldn't said church have those items listed before hand? Perhaps on the flyer or sign up sheet, or whatever was used to get people there.

FixieDave said...

I wish I could... even with my fear of needles.... but Lyme prevents me from donating

Anonymous said...

Did you at least get a orange wedge or cookie for your troubles?

StupidBike said...

All the heroine keeps me from donating

Rick Sunderlage said...

Bob- for YOUR blood, I'd pay $12