My first blood donation

Actually it is my second. But that first time (not this first time) was for the father of a colleague of mine, who was having a surgery and required blood. This happened in circa 1998.

This first time happened yesterday (26th May 2009). There was a camp organised at work on Monday and Tuesday. There have been quite a few camps that have taken place on campus and every time, I would think of donating. But I would end up not doing so, under some pretext or the other.

Yesterday, a friend of mine came to my desk and asked if we could go. I guess that was the real push I needed and so I agreed. We went there in the afternoon, but the organisers informed us that they were overbooked for the day. They made an appointment at 2:30 PM on Tuesday.

We went there today on time, but there was still a pretty long line of people. We filled out a form (my father calls such forms as "laedhu form", but that is a different story that I hope to narrate some other time) and waited our turn.

The technician on duty first performed the Specific Gravity test (a.k.a Copper Sulphate test) to determine whether my haemoglobin count was at an acceptable level. You can refer this link from one of WHO's websites for details.

I passed that test and then the Doctor checked my BP. This was also in the standard acceptable range and so I was permitted to donate blood. My turn came up in a few minutes after the Doctor's clearance.

I was asked to lie down on one of the "beds" and then the other technicians got down to business. They gave me a soft rubber ball and asked me to keep squeezing it. Blood was collected from my left hand. After 5 minutes or so, the collection was stopped and they asked me to lie down for a couple of minutes.

Then one person came along and asked me to sit down. After confirming that I was in a steady state, he took me to the recuperation table. I was given a Frooti, asked to help myself to few biscuits and also have a banana. My friend had completed his donation a minute before I did. So, after the official recuperation, we went to the juice shop on campus and helped ourselves to a Dates Milk Shake. Dates was selected since it is considered to be rich in Iron and hence good for blood.

To cut a long (and yet another needless) story short, I did my bit for the society by contributing blood. I have also done enough self-publicity with this post too! And I request you to do what I did - I meant the donation part, not the publicity part.

There are many sites that would give you the necessary information regarding blood donation. The bank to which I donated is this one.


P.S.: In my eagerness to publish this post yesterday, I inadvertently posted it on the InGiliPiece post. My apologies to my fellow-authors of that blog.