Blood Donation - A+

Image borrowed from THIS site

I recently just discovered that I was an A+ - I always thought that since I have a twin brother, whatever his blood type - is mine as well! But I was wrong. He's and AB while I'm an A. I gathered that since we two has our individual sacs - we had different blood types.

Yesterday morning, my Panget asked for my blood type, he said that a relative needed blood - he then asked if I wanted to donate. And I said Yes.

Things to consider:
1) I am deathly afraid of needles piercing my flesh (except for the derma and the dentist - i LOVE them both!)
2) I hate the sight of too much blood!
3) This will be my first time EVER to donate blood.
4) I am afraid of pain, period

So - I thought, this is a good thing. A good deed! I am helping another individual, right?

Then, there's the waiting period. I hate the waiting because it makes me think of so many things! Then there's the fear coupled with the waiting! I hate it.

So it was my turn. I had to grip on my Panget's hand tightly. It was so hard to relax as I was imagining the needle. I didn't want to look so I hid behind my Panget's back. I told the nurse/lab tech - to chat with me, so I'll be distracted, but then - she said 'Hinga ng malalim ma'am!' Oh, great - that means only one thing - she'll be piercing the needle on my arm now. I was about to cry - when I felt the pain. But then in my mind I was saying 'God, give me strength!' I was repeating this over and over again in my head. She then told me to squeeze the stressball - but every time I squeezed it, there was pain!

After a few minutes - another technician came to me and told me she was going to fix the needle. My imagination ran wild, again!! And when the moved it - the pain sort of went away and I was able to squeeze more comfortably.

My Panget was by my side - holding on to my hand's tight grip, telling me to relax and to keep on squeezing. A few minutes later - the technician took out the needle and I was done.

Wrong!

The reason why she took it out was because - there was too little blood that was flowing, and that she gathered that my vein was too small! And I thought the flow was going smoothly! My Panget agreed that there was too little blood flowing out of me. Another attempt meant that another needle will be pierced on my opposite arm! The technician said that she'll have a hard time looking for a vein because my veins are just too small!

Looking at the bag - the technician declared I gave only 300cc.

For my blood to be used - it was to be 500cc.

Darnit - my efforts were futile. My blood wasn't enough!!

I couldn't understand why they needed a full bag for the blood to be useful.

Oh well, medical explanations will just confuse me more.

So, there goes my first ever blood donation - gone futile.

Too bad!!

But it was a brave thing my Panget said.

Indeed it was!!!!!!!