Blood Donor

{This is my left and right arm. . . battle wounds!}

Today, the American Red Cross was at Olivet taking blood donations. I, the blood donor that I am, signed up to go in the middle of my busy day! I woke up at 6 this morning (which you read ALL about!), then went to chapel, then Children's Lit, Calculus, and Latin America. Right after, I had a group meeting to meet with my Latin America presentation group. As soon as that got out, I went to give my rare B- blood. I learned in my bio class that only 1.4% of Americans are B-! I get in there at 1:45 and get 'to the table' at 2. The nurse examines my left arm first (for 15 minutes), then my right arm (for 15 minutes), then she puts the needle in her other patient. She comes back to me and decides to do my left arms. I have small veins, so it is hard to get the needle in there correctly so the blood all comes out! The she gets the needle in there and I am watching her twist and turn the needle in my arm! All of a sudden, the blood starts flowing through the tubes... also, all down my arm! She quickly covers it up, but I tell her its okay! She took the needle out and wanted to try my right arm, so around I go. She re-examines my right arm and finds a vein! As soon as she is going to poke it, she finds a 'better' vein. She cleans and marks it and gets ready to go at it again. This time, my vein doesn't get hit, so she goes twisting it around in there. The spot she found was in, what I thought, was an unusual location. It was on the forearm between my elbow and where blood is normally drawn (side of my thumb). It was a bit more painful because the skin is thicker because it is on my arm, not the bendy part! Well, finally it got to flowing and shortly after, I was free to leave. I got a cool shirt out of the deal anyways! After blood donating, I went to sell T-Shirts for SEA. After that, it was definitely time for dinner! Church right after dinner, then back to my apartment for Private Practice and homework! It is now nearing the end of my day, and I must say that I am POOPED!