a long long time ago, too long ago for a blogger, i donated blood.

yes, my school was hosting a blood donation drive. i guess it was more curosity than generosity that drove me to donate some of my crimson essence.

i first had to fill out a form which had rather peculiar eligibilty questions. all of which were yes or no questions.

some examples were:

"Have you ever had clinical or laboratory evidence of AIDS or HIV infection?
For men: have you had sex with another man, even once, since 1977?
Have you ever injected intravenous drugs?
Have you engaged in sex in exchange for money or drugs since 1977?
Have you ever received clotting factor concentrates for hemophilia or other clotting disorders?"

and,

"Have you had sex in the past 12 months with:

-A person who has HIV infection or AIDS?
-A prostitute?
-A person who currently or previously used intravenous drugs?
-For women: a man who has sex with another man (that is, a man who is bisexual)?
-A person receiving clotting factor concentrates?
Have you had syphilis or gonorrhea?
Have you received a blood transfusion?
Have you experienced an accidental needle stick injury or a blood splash to mucous membranes (tissues lining the eyes, nose, or mouth) or broken skin?"

well, okay. my parents haven't even met each other in 1977. and i pride myself in being a virgin. so practically every tick went to each "No" box. there were some questions pertaining to my recent travel history. i must admit that i lazily ticked "No" for some due to uncertainty on when i last went overseas. oh well.

anyway, after the registration, i went on to get my blood pressure checked. those with low blood pressure were not allowed to donate for they would not be able to pump blood into the bag effectively. after the blood pressure test was blood screening. there are many types of tests, including colorimetric haemoglobin test where a haemoglogin photmeter is used. it is a machine-read result from a chemical reactionon a testing strip. but a more economical and faster way of testing was the copper sulphate test, which was what was used. the concentration of haemoglobins is measured by dropping a drop of blood into a copper sulphate solution. the solution is calibrated so that concentrations above a certain amount would make the drop of blood sink. in other words, if your drop sinks, you're eligible. i sat there and offered my finger. without warning she whipped out one of those pricking things used to puncture your skin deep enough to bleed a significant amount of blood for testing. it stung like an ant bite for a couple of seconds. then, she started squeezing blood from my finger into a little tube. when enough was collected, she dropped the blood from the tube into the copper sulphate solution. i'm happy to say that my drop of blood sank like the Titanic.

she gave a prompt "Thank You" and showed me to the Evil Blood-Sucking Nurses (EBSNs). these fiendish beings were the ones who would suck you dry. anyway, i was ushered to a recliner and was told to wait. soon, i was attended to. one of the EBSNs took my registration form and with a few quick strokes of a pen, filled in the official stuff. she took my blood pressure again then went off to fetch some pills and brochures. she came back and shoved them to me. "Iron Tablets, please take them once a day. These are for you," she said, like how a bored EBSN who said it 9875616465 times before would. the brochures they gave were overflowing with words of great appreciation, of how important you are to have given a pint of blood, of how you can save a life. like, come on, it's just a pint of blood. it's not like i saved the world or anything. i guess they were just trying to make you feel important. nothing like a little ass-kissing to make you feel good about yourself. anyway, she used the blood pressure reader as a torniquet and pumped up the pressure on both arms to look for the vein most closest to the surface of the skin. mine was on my right arm, opposite the elbow

then came the crux of what the EBSNs do. she pulled out an empty blood bag and hung it on my tray. she untangled the ominous mess of tubes and singled out the one with the cannula, the fat-as-hell needle that they stick into you.

first, she disinfected my arm with what looked like the bigger brother of a ear cotton cleaner, which was soaked with a green alcohol-based disinfectant. she swabbed the area for about a few mintues - a good move considering how unsanitary my arm can be. then came the anasthetic. "This is going to sting for a while. it's the anasthetic. after a while it will get numb."

and just like the EBSN before, before i knew it, she stuck the damn needle in me. it burned more than it stung. the anasthetic formed a little lump in my skin. she waited a while for the effects of the anasthetic to take its course. then, with the cannula in hand, she stuck the fat thing into my arm. i was half expecting it to hurt a little, for she only waited a few seconds for the anasthetic to work. to my surprise, not only did it not hurt, i didn't even feel the needle get stuck in my arm. i had lost all feeling in that area. cool.

she then put a stress ball in my hand and asked to slowly squeeze it, so as to pump the blood out. so i sat there, squeezing the ball, feeling quite happy - oh yeah, with a fat-ass needle sticking out of my arm.

like what the hell? it's actually kind of freaky but cool at the same time. notice the dark colour of the tube? that's the blood. well, duh, yeah, but you should've seen the blood course through it like it was just another vein. you could feel the warmth of the red liquid through as it touched your skin. cool. when do you ever feel your body heat from the inside out?

i was quite fascinated by it and took another photo.

yeah. a close up of the fat thing sticking out of my arm. coolness!

it was quite interesting to see the blood flow down the sides of the bag into an ever-growing pool below. here's what it looked like:

coolness. kind of looks like Ribena syrup.

anyway, the process took shorter than i expected and any hope of skipping many many many many periods was immediately erased. in the end, she removed the fat needle - with me silently thanking God - and cut the tube and drained some of the blood into different test tubes to be sent to the laboratories for testing. she put a cotton swab over the hole in my arm and asked me to put pressure on it. like, hell yeah would i put pressure on it. if i didn't my arm would be like a damn blood fountain. so she patched me up and gave me this really cool green elastic bandage with chic dark green dinosaurs all over it.

don't you just LOVE the dinosaurs? although there were others which were equally cool. like the blue one with monkeys, the yellow one with bumble bees, the orange one with SMILEYS [I SO WANTED THAT ONE] and the pink one with purple hearts which was ass-ugly.

oh well, i got free biscuits, milo and a red cap for it and i wouldn't mind "saving another life" again if they came back.

"Found a box of sharp objects
What a wonderful thing"