Today I drove over to the Bloomington Memorial Blood Center to make up for the bloodmobile visit at work I had to skip a few weeks ago due to having a cold. That was also the week we had bartender training, so they probably wouldn’t have wanted my alcohol-infused blood then anyways.
When I called to make the appointment, the scheduler asked if I had ever done a double red cell donation. Nope – never even heard of it before. He explained it to me and asked if I would be willing to try. I wasn’t wild about it, but anything for a good cause, right?
I started donating blood through Memorial back when I worked for Northwest Airlines. They had a mobile bloodmobile that visited my building on a semi-regular basis and it basically became a case of peer pressure with the other managers to sign up. I hate needles and the sights and sensations of donating blood aren’t exactly my favorite thing, but I probably did it about five times.
Fast forward to my current job at Fortune Bay, where I found out that the very same Memorial bloodmobile visits about every six months. All of the directors and managers are also hit up with the peer pressure angle, so I started to donate again there. The first time went smoothly, but I had an episode the second time that required the attention of our emergency responder. Embarrassing.
Today’s experience was similar to a whole blood donation, but it made me much more uncomfortable by the end. Everything starts the same, but they leave the needle exposed so the fluid movement can be observed. After the first extraction, the blood pressure cuff automatically loosens and you are told not to squeeze your fist. The machine separates the red blood cells out, then pumps everything else back into your arm. Once it finishes that, the process starts over again (four total cycles in my case).
The sensation of the fluid moving back into my arm was a little weird, but the feeling that drove me crazy was a vibration of the needle that happened both ways. The nurse said that was normal, although she taped it up as much as she could. Thankfully it wasn’t constant, but the whole process took longer than a normal donation, so I was very, very glad when it finally ended.
The upside to this type of donation is that since more of the fluid is returned to your body, your chances of feeling lightheaded afterwards are much lower. I felt fine right away, but still grabbed the traditional juice and cookie before driving home…
