Madeline the Edifying (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
zdashamber) wrote2008-01-20 03:06 pm
zdashamber) wrote2008-01-20 03:06 pm
Entry tags:
Blood and rhetoric
So, I gave blood yesterday... It's something I try to do a couple times a year, but I have to do it when I know I can do nothing for a couple days and nothing strenuous for a fortnight after, because I don't have a whole lot of blood or pressure. The time I tried giving blood and then going back to work, I ended up sitting and then lying on the floor of the lab, with the hot feeling of "sit down or fall down, 3... 2... 1..." So I've been lax last year.
Anyway, finally had a 3-day weekend with nothing really planned... Also,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
denyse is hopefully going to be giving birth in the next week, and that reminded me. When I first got my blood type card I was kindof annoyed... "B negative?! I thought I was O!" Mom had always said I was O, but turns out that spot on the birth certificate referred to her, not me. After doing a bit of research turns out that unlike in Europeans, B is pretty common in Asians, so I kinda figured that I was in a good location for having B and my blood would go to people with Asian backgrounds giving birth. I asked yesterday how far blood from Oakland travelled, and apparently it stays in Oakland, but anyway.
The "negative" part was more annoying, really. Means that I'm going to have to have more injections than most, if I ever end up carrying a positive baby; and I'll really do much better to be pregnant in a place with modern medical care. Poking around today, looks like Asia has basically no people who are negative, so if I end up in Asia needing blood I'm going to be SOL. Sheesh.
On the other hand, I guess I get to be all cool by being the second rarest blood type (after AB neg), and I get to be a better donor. Feh...
Anyway, giving blood is not so bad, if you haven't done it. Lots of annoying questions which rule out masses of people in the Bay Area who have ever slept with a man who has slept with a man, or who have had a tattoo or piercing in the last year. The way they spend a solid minute or two scrubbing your elbow with iodine is kind of annoying, too. The actual poking a needle in you is less bad than injections of novocaine when you're getting dental work; the stinging really does go away in less than 30 seconds. Then you can feel that there's something in you, and you don't want to move much because you know that it's sharp and could poke you if you move, but it doesn't actually hurt, particularly as the minutes go by and your veins do their tiny little moving around thing to adjust themselves better. It's a little odd to have the tube of outgoing blood taped to you, because things that are human body temperature are odd. The end part where they stop the flow into the bag and stop/start it a couple times to fill little test tubes, that part kind of sucks because the blood backs up into you and gives you strange little tweaking feelings inside your vein. But after that, no bruise, nothing but a little red spot on your elbow, clots fine, no worries.
Anyway, finally had a 3-day weekend with nothing really planned... Also,
denyse is hopefully going to be giving birth in the next week, and that reminded me. When I first got my blood type card I was kindof annoyed... "B negative?! I thought I was O!" Mom had always said I was O, but turns out that spot on the birth certificate referred to her, not me. After doing a bit of research turns out that unlike in Europeans, B is pretty common in Asians, so I kinda figured that I was in a good location for having B and my blood would go to people with Asian backgrounds giving birth. I asked yesterday how far blood from Oakland travelled, and apparently it stays in Oakland, but anyway.The "negative" part was more annoying, really. Means that I'm going to have to have more injections than most, if I ever end up carrying a positive baby; and I'll really do much better to be pregnant in a place with modern medical care. Poking around today, looks like Asia has basically no people who are negative, so if I end up in Asia needing blood I'm going to be SOL. Sheesh.
On the other hand, I guess I get to be all cool by being the second rarest blood type (after AB neg), and I get to be a better donor. Feh...
Anyway, giving blood is not so bad, if you haven't done it. Lots of annoying questions which rule out masses of people in the Bay Area who have ever slept with a man who has slept with a man, or who have had a tattoo or piercing in the last year. The way they spend a solid minute or two scrubbing your elbow with iodine is kind of annoying, too. The actual poking a needle in you is less bad than injections of novocaine when you're getting dental work; the stinging really does go away in less than 30 seconds. Then you can feel that there's something in you, and you don't want to move much because you know that it's sharp and could poke you if you move, but it doesn't actually hurt, particularly as the minutes go by and your veins do their tiny little moving around thing to adjust themselves better. It's a little odd to have the tube of outgoing blood taped to you, because things that are human body temperature are odd. The end part where they stop the flow into the bag and stop/start it a couple times to fill little test tubes, that part kind of sucks because the blood backs up into you and gives you strange little tweaking feelings inside your vein. But after that, no bruise, nothing but a little red spot on your elbow, clots fine, no worries.
no subject
Things that make you go hmmm.
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So yeah, your blood composition is altered alot, and the loss of the nutrients (sugars & salts) hits some people really hard. Also, you're more susceptible to colds an viruses for the next several hours.
Cold saline sucks. I always wanted to devise a warmer for the stuff. Since I donated after work, I sometimes pre-warmed a bag for myself (carrying it around).