So today was blood day, and darned if I didn't start to fall over again. I had filled up my bag (after a little uncertainty with finding the vein under the skin and some extra pulling and pushing of the needle) and was wating for the nurse to take the needle out of my arm (she was busy with the donor on the next couch over, who had also gone faint) when things started to go grey. Eventually someone lowered my head and raised my feet.
When the needle came out, I kept leaking for a while even though my fingers were clamped down pretty tightly over the puncture. Pressure bandage solved that, but I must say that having another patient right there being fanned and elevated slowed the staff's reaction just a bit.
Then things got weird: both of my hands felt as if they were swelling up and vibrating in time with the fans positioned all over the room. It might just have been circulation starting back up, but still a very strange sensation. Someone else told me to breathe deeply in through my nose and out through my mouth, and eventually that calmed things down.
At the refreshment table there was a consensus that this was the worst day in quite a while for people falling over. The screened-off section was full. Could have been the heat, or the humidity, or the extra stress from doing history and preliminary sticks in a hot room crowded with ten tables instead of a nice cool basement.
This session's prize drawing, meanwhile, was not only for free Red Sox tickets but a $75 gasoline gift certificate. More precious even than blood.
Posted by wallich at August 16, 2004 05:52 PM