A+

A great blood type for a teacher, I think.  Yesterday I gave blood for the first time ever.  Sad I know... in college I did tried to donate blood.  I confess my motive was some free t-shirt or subway sandwich.  But I was rejected because I had lived in Niger for several years as a kid.  Rejected for life!  While I was disappointed that I could not get the free sandwich, in some way I was a little relieved.  I have never really liked needles.

In Africa the standards are a little less stringent for blood donation.  I also must confess that I probably would not have been motivated to give blood in Africa either if not for the encouragement of my team mate Jessica.  (Jessica had just given blood to one of her patients, who was in desperate need of blood after her c-section.)  I guess it was a good idea, but as I have said I don’t do well with needles, and a total wimp when it comes to even minor pain.  I had a flash backs to a year ago when I had to get a mere vile of blood drawn for some tests.  The nurse who was a student, information I would have preferred not to know, kept plunging the needle into my arm in search for a blood vessel.  She finally hit one which failed to produce enough blood.  When she left the room I started to feel light headed at the thought of a repeat artery diving experience.  Another nurse walked by and suddenly exclaimed, “You are going to faint!”  She quickly instructed me to put my head down and led me to the bench where I could lie down for the other arm.  My right arm was more cooperative in blood giving and I managed to get out of there with out passing out.   

I put all this behind me and reminded myself it was all in my head.  The nurse at Kijabe Hospital expertly drew a quick vile and I passed with a hemoglobin of 13.5.  The nurse had pricked me in my right arm for this initial test, so I decided to use my left arm for the donation.  At this point I wish I had been thinking a little more about my near fainting experience and how the right arm worked so much better, but I had pushed that memory far from my mind.  I sat in the chair with my feet up, pumping my hand like crazy as the nurse looked down at my arm with a wrinkled brow and stated that I had very small veins. I began to worry a bit and give myself another pep talk.  She released the truncate and called someone else.  The other guy managed to get the massive needle in my tiny vein and the blood letting began.  It was so slow going, so slow that some needle gouging was done to try to get the process going.  Eventually they gave up as the blood in the bag started to clot.  And I hadn’t even produced1/2 a pint.  The nurse asked me if I wanted to try in the other arm.  I thought to myself, “Are you crazy?”  but some how my mouth must have agreed and Jess was there to second this and remind me this could save someone’s life. 

Praise the Lord he hit the vein on the first stick and we were in business.  And I did it!  I gave up a whole pint of my blood.  It is pretty amazing that my blood can actually be put into someone else’s veins and be used to carry their oxygen and nutrients through their body.  One last confession.  When I stood up I could feel that tingly feeling returning and I had to sit back down and have my bitter lemon soda be brought to me.  But hey, I got something for free, sustained only minor bruising the next day, and I had the hope that my A+ blood might do someone some good.