#11 Donate Blood

Today I kicked off 11th month of the year by checking off number 11 on my list. In case you haven't seen the list, the first part of the list can be found here and the second part here.

The idea of donating blood has always kind of freaked me out but after being assured that its not that bad I decided to give it a shot. Bonnie was awesome and spent her lunch hour hanging out with me for support and was the official photographer (with input on camera angles from Ava).

It started out as I had expected...my technician Olga couldn't find a vein! No surprise there since its always a problem whenever I need to get blood drawn. Olga called in Ava 'the expert' who kept asking if I drank enough water (48 oz that morning- yup might have been overkill) and if I had eaten.

Olga (left) and Ava (right) shaking their heads at my teeny tiny veins. Keisha in the background going through boxes. 

Ava decided that my veins were too small and that the only viable one was next to a tendon which if she hit 'would really hurt'. Ummm what??? I asked her to define 'really hurt' and she said that some people can manage the pain but some find it extremely painful and they would have to stop. I was close to backing out when they decided to call in Keisha. Keisha should really be called the expert because within a few seconds she had the vein picked out and a few minutes later the needle was in.

No big deal just saving lives on my lunch hour

Ava kept saying how fast it was going- not sure if she was just trying to make me feel special since I was a newbie or if my blood is just super awesome and faster than anyone else (obviously I prefer to think it was the latter). 

Not a very flattering picture (I was too busy being a life saver to worry about such things) but a good shot of my super fast blood being donated. 

Only 5 minutes later it was over and I had to hang out in the chair for a bit and drink more water. Then I was allowed to go hit up the snack bar (mmm doughnuts) before heading out. 

My arm is pretty sore, bruised and swollen tonight but overall it was an easy item to check off my list. I'll be keeping busy this weekend checking off another list item...making apple pie!