Kraken
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I went to ARC give blood for the first time yesterday. TL;DR, it was a total fail.
The lady who took me in was very nice, she checked me in and I answered a bunch of questions that my life is no way interesting enough to say yes to. She did the hemoglobin check (she called it that) with the finger prick and it came out to 20.3, which was 0.3 too high. She said we can check it again, and from the other finger it came to 19.9, so that was a pass. She figured I was there due to high everything, and suggested I do a "power red" procedure because it would lower my numbers a bit more.
I figured sure, why not. Big mistake. I have very prominent veins (I actually used to date a phlebotomist who said so all the time) but the second woman struggled to get the stick right. When she finally started the machine, it did a lot of rapid beeping. She called the first woman over, and she adjusted the needle in my arm, which of course was unpleasant. The machine finally reported green, but shortly started it's rapid beeping again. Another readjustment, green, a little time, rapid beeping again. After the third try, my blood started leaking down my arm at a pretty good pace. I was able to get someones attention and they came over, and started to adjust the needle again. Much of this time I was sweating a bit, a little dizzy and a little nauseous.
At that point I had been sitting on their couch for 30 minutes of what was supposed to be a 30 minute procedure. She told me it had not really started yet, so I told her we are giving up. She gave me a nasty look and said that I needed a little saline and then she would take the needle out. I presume she did that, and a few minutes later she came and removed the needed. I asked what the problem was and she explained that my blood was clotting. I have no idea if she is right or not. She took the needle out, cleaned the blood off my arm and then walked away. At that point everyone was just pretending I was not there. I walked over to one of the little tables and sat a bit since I was light headed and a little nauseous. After about ten minutes I just decided to leave.
I'll probably call them today and ask what actually happened, if I can try again, whatever. And so ended my first blood donation experience.
The lady who took me in was very nice, she checked me in and I answered a bunch of questions that my life is no way interesting enough to say yes to. She did the hemoglobin check (she called it that) with the finger prick and it came out to 20.3, which was 0.3 too high. She said we can check it again, and from the other finger it came to 19.9, so that was a pass. She figured I was there due to high everything, and suggested I do a "power red" procedure because it would lower my numbers a bit more.
I figured sure, why not. Big mistake. I have very prominent veins (I actually used to date a phlebotomist who said so all the time) but the second woman struggled to get the stick right. When she finally started the machine, it did a lot of rapid beeping. She called the first woman over, and she adjusted the needle in my arm, which of course was unpleasant. The machine finally reported green, but shortly started it's rapid beeping again. Another readjustment, green, a little time, rapid beeping again. After the third try, my blood started leaking down my arm at a pretty good pace. I was able to get someones attention and they came over, and started to adjust the needle again. Much of this time I was sweating a bit, a little dizzy and a little nauseous.
At that point I had been sitting on their couch for 30 minutes of what was supposed to be a 30 minute procedure. She told me it had not really started yet, so I told her we are giving up. She gave me a nasty look and said that I needed a little saline and then she would take the needle out. I presume she did that, and a few minutes later she came and removed the needed. I asked what the problem was and she explained that my blood was clotting. I have no idea if she is right or not. She took the needle out, cleaned the blood off my arm and then walked away. At that point everyone was just pretending I was not there. I walked over to one of the little tables and sat a bit since I was light headed and a little nauseous. After about ten minutes I just decided to leave.
I'll probably call them today and ask what actually happened, if I can try again, whatever. And so ended my first blood donation experience.
