I donated blood about two months ago. It's cool because you get all sorts of tests done for free... I now for a fact now that I don't have AIDS, chagas disease or malaria among others.
I've always wanted to go donate blood, and they have busses that are parked on campus about once a month here... but I never have! My roommate told me a horror story of when she donated blood once and then felt exhausted for like 2 weeks afterward. I don't get very much sleep as it is, and the idea of being totally exhausted for anything other than sleep-deprivation while going to a university kind of terrifies me.
I used to donate whole blood whenever there was a drive. I was at a gallon at some point (they gave me a pin). Now I just donate platelets because they only have a 1 week shelf-life, so they need them more. If you don't like needles, you won't like platelet donations, it takes about 1.5-2 hours with a needle in each arm. Actually, I think it's only supposed to take an hour for a regular donation. I have lots of platelets to spare so they always ask me to give a triple. I assume that means 3 times as much but the baggy doesn't look 3 times as full as other people's when I'm done.
I'm in the camp of people who fear the needles, but hooray for those who don't.
I also used to hate getting blood tests and shots. But then I started volunteering at a hospital so had to get about 4 shots (2 for test, and both flu vaccines) in about a month's time so I find that it doesn’t bother me as much.
My roommate told me a horror story of when she donated blood once and then felt exhausted for like 2 weeks afterward. I don't get very much sleep as it is, and the idea of being totally exhausted for anything other than sleep-deprivation while going to a university kind of terrifies me.
When I donated I felt fine afterwards. Though if you’re on the line of just over the minimum 110 lbs it might affect you more. It could of also been caused by dehydration ( I think it is something like 75% of people in North America are chronically dehydrated).
On the other hand I do have a problem of really deep veins. When I was younger I had a blood test where they tried it to find it in my right arm and couldn’t, then went to my left arm and couldn’t find it there either. So they went back to my right and finally found it.
The lady at the blood drive did a much better job and was able to get it on the first try.
And I have blood pressure problems, where I've gotten dizzy twice after giving, so I don't want to hear any whining, Phone Monkey.
I didn't really think I was whining. I think It's great that people donate blood to help the people that really need it, but It's just not my kind of thing.
So, some people don't like needles? I've got a story here to creep you all the fuck out.
When I first moved to China, my immune system wasn't yet at the superhuman level required to survive here. After eating exotic fruit of questionable sanitation from a peasant selling them on a street corner, I broke out into a weird red rash that slowly started to spread across my body. I went to a doctor, and they gave me a mix of drugs to take, including an IV that I had to have done at the doctor's office once a day for three days.
The IV was not so bad. They stuck a needle into one of the big veins on the top of my hand, and they put the solution into a small pump that slowly yet forcefully injected the solution into me over a course of 15 minutes. The first two days went normal, with no complications.
The third day, I showed up, and the nurse pricked me as usual. I thought it hurt a little more than normal, but sometimes nurses aren't that great at sticking needles in. I figured whatever, and I watched them hook me up to the slow pressure pump. I took my PSP and started playing a game.
After a minute, it was still really hurting. I figured I was thinking too much about it, and I tried to ignore it. After two minutes, it was getting worse. I figured wtf, and I turned my hand over, and I'll never forget it: there was a giant fucking bulge over the top of my entire hand. The needle had poked OUT of my vein, and it was pumping the solution in that space somewhere between my muscle and my skin. If you took a hardboiled egg, cut it in half the long way, and stuck it under the skin on the top of your hand, that's what it would look like.
I quickly called the nurse and yanked the needle out myself. I started freaking the fuck out. I quickly grew nauseous, ran across a hall full of sick Chinese, and vomitted purple all over the place. I had recently eaten a basket full of berries, and it apparently turned the inside of my stomach purple. Keep in mind that nobody there spoke English (the doctors did, but I was at the nurse's station), and I had a giant painful fucking bulge on the back of my hand while I'm spewing purple out of my mouth. I found this incredibly funny and started laughing at the insanity of it all.
The other sick Chinese, on the other hand, were very noticeably uncomfortable.
After vomitting, I felt better, and I lay down on a bed until a doctor came by to talk to me in English. Turns out the IV had gone out the other end of my vein, and the fluid was now just sitting on my muscles in my hand. It would all be absorbed in a few days, and it was not a health concern at all. And I went back to work that afternoon.
That's hilarious and terrifying. That story made me cringe more than I have in a long while and gave me a good laugh too. Kind of make's me wonder what I would do in that situation.
Phone, just a little bit of friendly grammar advice: you only use the apostrophe s when you're indicating the possessive or for contractions involving 'it'. The only exception to this is its/it's. 'Its' is the possessive, 'it's' is the abbreviation for 'it is'. So for plurals, such as nails, cars, bicycles, you just use an s with no apostrophe. Same goes for present tense verbs, like 'makes'. No apostrophe needed, just an 's'.
What about them? The apostrophe? I said up above that you only use the apostrophe s for possessive except for its/it's. Well, I guess that's uses it as well. I guess I didn't think of that. But I used its/it's because it's a strange rule because this is the only case that the possessive doesn't get the apostrophe.
Phone, just a little bit of friendly grammar advice: you only use the apostrophe s when you're indicating the possessive or for contractions involving 'it'. The only exception to this is its/it's. 'Its' is the possessive, 'it's' is the abbreviation for 'it is'. So for plurals, such as nails, cars, bicycles, you just use an s with no apostrophe. Same goes for present tense verbs, like 'makes'. No apostrophe needed, just an 's'.
:tmyk:
Crap. I think I need to go back to school. I just use the apostrophe because otherwise the spell check tells me I made a mistake with my spelling.
It could be correct if you were talking about a model of car or something... like if you were referring to the make's year. Still looks awkward though.
My parents were in town this weekend and I took them to a hippy fest, it was fantastic. I think they had a lot of fun! Minus my brother getting into a bitch fit and running off into a crowd of a bazillion drunk/high people without a cell phone when all the rest of us were drinking. Even with that, though, I had a lot of fun this weekend!!
Bruce tried out his webcam on me, and I heard him and Vienna talking a bunch. They're so freaking British. During the conversation, I started off looking like:
Comments
Any other Orange Beltians donate blood recently (or ever)?
Doing a blood drive this Sunday, actually.
And I have blood pressure problems, where I've gotten dizzy twice after giving, so I don't want to hear any whining, Phone Monkey.
That's because all the cancer patients who need (and can get) treatment are in the US.
I also used to hate getting blood tests and shots. But then I started volunteering at a hospital so had to get about 4 shots (2 for test, and both flu vaccines) in about a month's time so I find that it doesn’t bother me as much.
When I donated I felt fine afterwards. Though if you’re on the line of just over the minimum 110 lbs it might affect you more. It could of also been caused by dehydration ( I think it is something like 75% of people in North America are chronically dehydrated).
On the other hand I do have a problem of really deep veins. When I was younger I had a blood test where they tried it to find it in my right arm and couldn’t, then went to my left arm and couldn’t find it there either. So they went back to my right and finally found it.
The lady at the blood drive did a much better job and was able to get it on the first try.
I didn't really think I was whining. I think It's great that people donate blood to help the people that really need it, but It's just not my kind of thing.
When I first moved to China, my immune system wasn't yet at the superhuman level required to survive here. After eating exotic fruit of questionable sanitation from a peasant selling them on a street corner, I broke out into a weird red rash that slowly started to spread across my body. I went to a doctor, and they gave me a mix of drugs to take, including an IV that I had to have done at the doctor's office once a day for three days.
The IV was not so bad. They stuck a needle into one of the big veins on the top of my hand, and they put the solution into a small pump that slowly yet forcefully injected the solution into me over a course of 15 minutes. The first two days went normal, with no complications.
The third day, I showed up, and the nurse pricked me as usual. I thought it hurt a little more than normal, but sometimes nurses aren't that great at sticking needles in. I figured whatever, and I watched them hook me up to the slow pressure pump. I took my PSP and started playing a game.
After a minute, it was still really hurting. I figured I was thinking too much about it, and I tried to ignore it. After two minutes, it was getting worse. I figured wtf, and I turned my hand over, and I'll never forget it: there was a giant fucking bulge over the top of my entire hand. The needle had poked OUT of my vein, and it was pumping the solution in that space somewhere between my muscle and my skin. If you took a hardboiled egg, cut it in half the long way, and stuck it under the skin on the top of your hand, that's what it would look like.
I quickly called the nurse and yanked the needle out myself. I started freaking the fuck out. I quickly grew nauseous, ran across a hall full of sick Chinese, and vomitted purple all over the place. I had recently eaten a basket full of berries, and it apparently turned the inside of my stomach purple. Keep in mind that nobody there spoke English (the doctors did, but I was at the nurse's station), and I had a giant painful fucking bulge on the back of my hand while I'm spewing purple out of my mouth. I found this incredibly funny and started laughing at the insanity of it all.
The other sick Chinese, on the other hand, were very noticeably uncomfortable.
After vomitting, I felt better, and I lay down on a bed until a doctor came by to talk to me in English. Turns out the IV had gone out the other end of my vein, and the fluid was now just sitting on my muscles in my hand. It would all be absorbed in a few days, and it was not a health concern at all. And I went back to work that afternoon.
The end.
:tmyk:
But you're right, I should clarify that.
Crap. I think I need to go back to school. I just use the apostrophe because otherwise the spell check tells me I made a mistake with my spelling.
Yeah it does. Pretty weird I guess.
My parents were in town this weekend and I took them to a hippy fest, it was fantastic. I think they had a lot of fun! Minus my brother getting into a bitch fit and running off into a crowd of a bazillion drunk/high people without a cell phone when all the rest of us were drinking. Even with that, though, I had a lot of fun this weekend!!
It's so goddamn swish!
But by the end of it, I looked like: