Giving back

For the first (successful) time, I had my blood drawn today & it went swimmingly.  I'm excited to do it again!  I don't think anyone can beat the feeling of knowing how much you're giving back to society.  This could save someone's life - pretty heavy stuff.

I've always been hesitant to give blood & I can remember the exact moment my hesitation was spurred.  While in college at the lovely & historic College of William & Mary, one of the philanthropic clubs held one of their many blood draws.  Being a good person (in my humble opinion) & wanting to give back to society, I make my way over the Student Union, signed up, answer all the necessary questions, & sit down in their comfy "lounge" chairs.  I'm ready to rock & roll.  A lady swings by & we chat while she preps everything for the blood draw.  No problemo, I'm feeling good - I've never had an aversion to blood.  Just ask my mother - while I was a youngster, I watched my dad sew up his foot after splitting it open on a dock tie-up.  Cool stuff.  I've got my arm out, she's giving it a good swab, out comes the needle...

And this is where it goes downhill.  I don't know if they hired this woman off the street, but she was the worst vein-finder-blood-drawer lady EVER.  She.could.not.find.my.vein.  OUCH.  So she's poking around my arm like I'm a pin cushion.  Then decides to switch arms.  Oh, ok, my right arm is now Swiss cheese, let's move to the left arm.  She finds a vein.  Holy shit, I wipe the sweat from my brow & force a grin across my face.  "Sure, no problem, I'm fiiiiiine."  Meanwhile, I'm praying to Allah, God, Jesus Cristo, the Sun God, Buddha, William & Mary...any deity or other-worldly figure that might bring me mercy.  So the blood finely starts flowing.

And then it STOPS.  

WTF.

She decides it's time to "adjust" the needle.  It might have felt better stabbing a dull nail into my eye repeatedly.  After what feels like an eternity (or the same length as an Economics class), which is probably only a matter of minutes, she makes the brilliant decision to stop what she's doing.  And says to me:

"Ok, so, you have extremely small veins & the blood has clotted, which means it will not provide enough blood for a full draw.  When it comes to drawing blood, in a "normal" person (um, am I not normal?), the needle is like a toothpick & the vein is like a drinking straw.  With your veins, the needle is like a toothpick & your vein is like a COFFEE STRAW.  You know, those little tiny coffee straws?  That's what your vein is like."

Oh.  Great.  Both of my arms hurt like hell & no blood to show for.

That was the last time I donated blood...until today!  Since that day at William & Mary, I've always made it very very VERY clear to anyone wielding a blood-drawing needle that I have VERY SMALL veins.  Today was no exception.  And it worked!  First time try & they found a big, puffy vein.  I filled my quotient quickly (they told me several times my blood was flowing very well - I was like proud mama bear) & after eating an unnecessary amount of Oreos - because, you know, I just gave blood & need the sugar (ha!) - was on my way back upstairs to my office.

It was a good feeling.  I wore my gauze bandage like a proud Girl Scout showing off her latest badge.  Sign me up for round two.