i got back into donating blood last year when j scheduled his appendectomy. for a few karma points, you know? and also because the FDA dropped its restrictions on male donors who had sex with men.
when i donated in october, in the boston area, things did not go well. it started hurting much more than it normally did, so i spoke up and the phlebotomist called over someone else who poked around a bit before giving up. at the time, i thought maybe i didn't hydrate enough, but later i had my doubts. they weren't able to get much blood out of me, and i ended up with pretty big bruises for a few weeks. it was about 8 inches top to bottom? the bruises didn't worry me much, but about a week after the failed donation, i developed a weird pain in my forearm. it was quite tender to the touch and even rolling a sleeve up hurt.
after another week or so, i texted r (who worked as a phlebotomist or something like that) describing the situation. he confirmed that yeah, i had some nerve damage but that it should get better soon (it's actually not uncommon). everything was back to normal in just under a month after the donation. it wasn't a big deal, but it did make me delay scheduling my next donation appointment.
in january, we were in stockton, and there were fires (so many fires) raging down south. i was feeling particularly useless since i knew that if we were back home, i'd be volunteering. so i decided to donate blood instead. (obviously, it was unlikely to go help a fire victim, but meh, i was doing something, you know?)
the day of, i actually brought up the previous nerve damage to the phlebotomist, and requested that if she missed, maybe she call it quits a little sooner than she normally would. she agreed. the appointment went well. no unusual pain and nothing else out of the ordinary either. in fact, i had such a "good time" that i signed up to donate plasma just a couple weeks later. i was even able to talk to a plasma donor in the recovery area and asked him a few questions about how it goes, etc. i was pretty excited!
after the recovery room, i did my usual routine and ran some errands at a couple different stores. i felt fine. but very suddenly, while waiting in line at tj maxx, i felt very hot. i thought it might be my sickness but it was coming on faster than usual so i took off my jacket and left the store. i wanted to get back to the car to lay down a bit and wait for things to pass. as i was walking out, my vision started going in and out with black clouds and as i got to the car, i missed the door handle and fell forward. i immediately got up, realizing that i'd hit my head because there was a LOT of blood, but then my vision was fine so i got into the car and lay down.
after a bit of rest, i called t to see if she could escort me home by phone. i wasn't far, only about 15 minutes away, so she stayed on the line and followed me on google maps as i cautiously drove home and narrated each turn and every approaching freeway exit.
i got home okay, and after texting j (so did t), decided to nap it off. in the meantime, t sent over some gatorade and tuna snacks via ubereats. after waking and eating, i felt a bit better and got up to look in the mirror and that's when i saw that the cut on my head was pretty bad. i knew there was a lot of blood, but i thought it was just cause it was a head injury and those tend to bleed a lot, even when they're not serious. j eventually came home with some medical cleaning stuff and confirmed that it did look pretty bad and said i may actually need stitches. oof.
long story a little shorter, we were turned down the urgent care (cause it was a head injury) and ended up in the ER where in a few hours, they did some blood work, gave me a CT scan, a tetanus shot, and two stitches.
sometime before the ER visit, i realized that i didn't just fall, but that i must've actually fainted because my hands were fine. i had pretty bad scrapes on two of my left knuckles, but my palms were completely unscathed. NO ONE in a conscious state falls face first from an almost standing position and doesn't throw out their hands to protect themselves. it's just not natural. (look up the hand drop test for suspected fake coma patients) so i realized i must've actually fainted and landed almost full force on my forehead. good thing i was probably bent over a bit trying to see the car door handle?
later, in telling people the story, apparently a lot of people faint from giving blood! only thing is that they usually pass out during or right after. not AN HOUR or two LATER as i had. oof. anyway, there were a lot of lessons learned from this. and i'll likely not forget because i have two pretty obvious facial scars still a month later. i have a red spot on the bridge of my nose and a weirdly almost exact 2008 beijing olympics logo in the center of my forehead near my hairline. apparently these will slowly fade, though whatever i have in two years is likely permanent.
i'm also giving up on donating blood, at least for a while, though, honestly, i am quite sad to do it. still, i can't in good conscience donate again so soon risking a third horrible thing to happen. i mean, talk about disregarding all the signs and tempting fate!! i don't have a rare blood type either, so i think the world will be okay without my little contribution. i hope that i too will be alright.
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