An Exciting Blood Draw

*Warning* This post contains mention of blood, needles, and other things that may make some people queasy. Feel free to skip if you are one of those people. ;)

I had a blood donation scheduled for last Friday. Even from the beginning, it seemed like things were occurring to make it so I wouldn't donate. The first time, I got all ready for the appointment on the 12th. For some reason I was sure that my appointment was set for Wednesday. We were getting groceries, when I suddenly looked at my watch and realized I was late for my appointment. We hurried to the checkout line, and half way through paying for things, I decided to look at my appointment to see where the address was. To my relief, I noticed that the appointment was actually set for Friday.

So, that Friday, I was cooking dinner, and time was running out. I was making pizza, and I was trying to get ahold of my mom to see how long I was supposed to cook it. I also needed to know what temperature. However, she wouldn't answer her phone, and before I knew it, I was late for my appointment. I finally received the information I needed, and ran out to the car. I went to check the address again...only to discover that my appointment was set for the next Friday.

So, fast-forward a week. Finally, the day of my actual appointment arrived. I arrived there in plenty of time, made sure I had my rapid-pass ready to go, and sat down to wait. Nearly an hour later, I finally got into the check-in station. On the first go, my iron was too low. However, during the second stick, I passed. My appointment was for a double blood cell draw, but it was so busy, I opted for a regular appointment instead.

It took another half an hour to get on a chair, but after that, things seemed to be going smoothly. I have really good veins, and I've never had anyone unable to hit them on the first poke. The nurse was able to do so, and blood began to fill the bag. However, as the nurse went to tape the needle to my arm, I felt the needle shift. I looked down and was surprised to see that I could see the open part of the needle. That wasn't a good sign.

I quickly pointed it out to the nurse, and as she looked down, blood began to pool. She quickly grabbed a gauze to put pressure on it, but the blood continued to spread. She tried to calmly call for another nurse to bring her more gauze, bu the other nurse was busy talking to another volunteer. The blood filled the whole gauze pad, and began to run down both sides of my arm. I moved away so it didn't land on my shirt, and sometime in the midst of all this, the needle came out the rest of the way.

About that time, the other nurse finally came over, and they both put on more gauze. Eventually the bleeding stopped, but because the needle had come out and they were out of blood bags, they told me I couldn't donate anymore, so I just had to leave.

So, I got a piece of gauze taped to my arm (they were also out of band-aids). I was pretty embarrassed, and so I kept apologizing. I didn't want the nurse to feel bad either.

Anyway, she told me to take lots of snacks, so I did.

All in all, it turned out to be the most unsuccessful blood donation I've ever been to. Aside from the embarrassment though, I trust that there's some good reason that I wasn't able to donate blood this week.