Day 37 - Blood.co.uk

February 6th 2013

So for a lot of today I had no idea what I would take a photo of. I was on the phone to my mum and dad, having a bit of a chat, and they asked if I'd done my post for today. I responded that I hadn't, and that in fact I had drawn a blank as to what I could take a picture of. I thought today might be the day you got to see my toes. At one point I was staring at our bookcase of boardgames and contemplating how fun a game of Twister would be by myself. I decided it would not only not be fun, but would be a difficult picture to take.

I wandered out into the kitchen and noticed the letter I had received about donating blood. It's not the most interesting or exciting photo I could take, but it is quite an important and worthy thing to talk about.

I was eager to give blood the first time, my sister Jen took me. It wasn't traumatic, there were biscuits, there was tea, it didn't hurt all that much. I was a fairly regular donator for a little while. Then I had a horrible experience. I was there all hooked up to my little bag, but this time it hurt and stung every time my heart beat. Afterwards I felt awful, and when I told the man this I had "Well you didn't eat enough" snapped back at me. He rushed me out the door, and I was stood at Chatham bus station (in the Pentagon, back in the day) thinking "...if I pass out here...I'm just going to get mugged". I got onto the bus without passing out, but I didn't give blood again until last year. The 8th of June to be precise. This was a break of about 6 years.

This time wasn't so bad. I was pretty nervous, and as usual the haemoglobin check was the bit I hated most. But the lady this time was completely lovely, I didn't feel great afterwards, so she held the padding to my arm and brought me water at the little bed. Then made sure I had tea and lots of biscuits before I left.

So I'm determined to make it a habit again. I had booked to go a couple of months go, but came home and promptly fell asleep. I've tried to book since, but they're on inconvenient dates and the ones that are convenient are all booked up. I've gone online and tried to make an appointment for next week, so we shall see. Maybe I'll rock up with the kindle and read for a few hours while I wait.

You should all go and donate too. You never know what might happen to you to make you need it.

www.blood.co.uk

Stephie
xxx