Blood Donation

I gave blood today. If you are squemish, I have a horror story so don't read this post. This is not about today, but rather the last time I gave blood. This would have been about 5 years ago and was not with the Red Cross (just to clarify). I was a seasoned donor by this time and had no worries. I went through the question process, no problem. I got the prick in the finger, not a big deal. Then I get out into the heart of the big bus to give blood. The lady chooses my right arm to use, seemed okay to me. And then instead of sticking the needle in horizontal to my vein, she sticks the needle in sideways. I don't know her reasoning behind this, she may have had a good one, but the problem came when the needle kept slipping out of the vein. It was still in my arm, just not in the vein. She would notice the bag was not filling with blood as it should and she would twist the needle back and forth until she found the vein again. I am not the fainting type, but this put me to the test. All in all she did this about 5 times before the blood finally clotted in the needle and she had to give up. My arm was purple from 1/2 way up my forearm to 1/2 way up my bicep.

So, because of this ordeal, it took me awhile to work up the nerve to return to the blood donation world. But they were having a blood drive a work. Seemed like a perfect opportunity. I couldn't let them down. I volunteered. After all I was going to be in Nashville for Defensive Driving (work related, not personal) anyway that day, so why not. Needless to say, I was a little bit nervous. And I will start by saying it finished well, without much pain, and they got a full pint off of me. With that being said, I think the person working on me was new. She was good, but unsure. The site doesn't even have a bruise. But she just didn't have her routine down just yet. Little things that I noticed because I have given blood a few times before. She lost the tape that she had put out to hold the needle in place. She picked the bag off the hanger before getting the sample vials for testing. She didn't take the squeezey thing out of my hand until I handed it to her when leaving. She left the tape on my arm and tried to pull out the needle. After getting the needle clear, she left uncovered. And worst of all, in my opinion, she did not instruct me to the cokes and cookies. As I said before, non are serious infractions in the blood donation world, just things that I noticed.