...and honestly, it was one of the scariest experiences of my life. 
The Red Cross was having a drive across the street from my work, so I went over during my lunch with a girl I work with. I really don't like needles or blood, but I figured I'd get over it for a good cause. She kept telling me that it was really simple, that she had given blood many times, and nothing had ever gone wrong with her.
They gave me the preliminary tests: checked my blood pressure, great, checked my iron levels which they were surprised to find were pretty high considering I don't eat meat. I lie down, they prep my arm, and they start drawing blood. Everything's good for a while as the woman tried to make small talk, presumably to distract me from my leaking bodily fluid. It was going just fine until my left arm started to tingle. I let them know, and they told me it was because they had to much pressure on my arm. They took off the blood pressure monitor, but as soon as they did I started to feel incredibly nauseated and lightheaded. My left arm went completely numb, and my right arm followed soon after. Next my stomach started to tingle and I lost the feeling in my legs. Then I saw my skin go pale white, and my hands and fingers started to cramp together to the point where I couldn't pull my fingers apart to hold the can of juice they were trying to get me to drink.
With the needle out and a couple cans of orange and cranberry juice later, my body started to calm down a bit. I was terrified and shaking throughout the entire ordeal, but they did manage to get the minimum amount of blood out of me, so it wasn't completely pointless. At this point I'm wondering if my body reacted that way due to them removing the blood pressure monitor, or perhaps I was too thin to give blood. Regardless and suffice it to say, I will never ever give blood again.
The Red Cross was having a drive across the street from my work, so I went over during my lunch with a girl I work with. I really don't like needles or blood, but I figured I'd get over it for a good cause. She kept telling me that it was really simple, that she had given blood many times, and nothing had ever gone wrong with her.
They gave me the preliminary tests: checked my blood pressure, great, checked my iron levels which they were surprised to find were pretty high considering I don't eat meat. I lie down, they prep my arm, and they start drawing blood. Everything's good for a while as the woman tried to make small talk, presumably to distract me from my leaking bodily fluid. It was going just fine until my left arm started to tingle. I let them know, and they told me it was because they had to much pressure on my arm. They took off the blood pressure monitor, but as soon as they did I started to feel incredibly nauseated and lightheaded. My left arm went completely numb, and my right arm followed soon after. Next my stomach started to tingle and I lost the feeling in my legs. Then I saw my skin go pale white, and my hands and fingers started to cramp together to the point where I couldn't pull my fingers apart to hold the can of juice they were trying to get me to drink.
With the needle out and a couple cans of orange and cranberry juice later, my body started to calm down a bit. I was terrified and shaking throughout the entire ordeal, but they did manage to get the minimum amount of blood out of me, so it wasn't completely pointless. At this point I'm wondering if my body reacted that way due to them removing the blood pressure monitor, or perhaps I was too thin to give blood. Regardless and suffice it to say, I will never ever give blood again.
. I'm honestly just not a fan of needles or seeing my own blood. My school hasn't had a drive in a while so I haven't had the opportunity to chicken out since last year.
The woman kept tugging on my vein and the blood wouldn't come out. The tingly feeling made me panic. My last experience was due to my mom pestering me. I donated blood and the experience wasn't that bad as the one before.
But when I asked her about the other questions on the questionaire, or to be exact about the one whether you have visited africa recently and why she thinks that this is on the list .. she was suddenly angry "just because someone was in africa, even when he had sex that doesn't mean that he got infected with HIV!". I stayed silence for a while until she realized what she just said.
