Red Paint

There was a blood drive at work yesterday! I'd never donated blood before and wanted to do it at least once.

I signed up for the blood drive not really knowing what to expect. Luckily, it was held at a building very close to the one I worked so I just walked over. When I arrived, I needed to fill out a nearly-90 question questionnaire! It took quite a while, but luckily all of the questions were simple yes-or-no.

After all that, they pricked my finger to get a drop of blood to test something, that I can't remember. They used kind of like a tiny guillotine for your finger - it made me chuckle to think of it as a tiny weapon. It didn't hurt at all.

After that was over, it was time to get stabbed. After some time to find the vein, I couldn't watch the needle go in. It hurt a bit, but the pain went away pretty quickly. They made me squeeze a stress ball every few seconds, presumably to push blood through my arm, which was a bit uncomfortable to do. I couldn't move my right arm, but while I was getting drained, I played solitaire on my phone with my left hand. I almost fell asleep actually. After it was over, about 15 minutes (not 100% sure on this), I was lightheaded and layed down for a while before getting up. It was nice though since they provided snacks.

I saw one of the nurses pick up a sack of blood and I asked, "is that mine?" She replied, "not anymore!"

I walked back to my building in time for lunch. I was pretty hungry so I ate early. I stayed at work for the rest of the day but was pretty tired so I took a very easy day. After work, I drove to Tennessee Valley in Marin where I meet weekly with the Marin Running Club. At that point, I felt totally back to normal, but no way was I about to run, so I took a slow, leisurely walk and enjoyed the cool afternoon.