I’m a Blood Donor and I Save Lives

“I’m a Blood Donor and I save Lives”. Today I’ve defeated my fear of needles! For the first time I donated blood! I’m so proud of myself. Yearly, our company would have a Blood Donation Drive and yearly I would ignore such invitations. However, I surprised myself when I thought of participating in our Blood donation drive this year. No one asked me to join but somehow I wanted to. I’m very busy early this morning so I wasn’t able to be one of the first 20 donors who will receive a supply of vitamins (kidding! I’m not that eager to donate blood!) I first filled out a form questioning my medical history. I was told that a sample blood will be taken first for analysis to see if you’re fit for donation. At that time, I thought I still have a chance not to donate after all. But then all the chances I have are gone when I was finally led to lie on a bed. My nervousness I guess was showing for the phlebotomist asked me to just calm down. I did not look when she pricked me with a needle. It was painful at first! Who ever said that it was just like being bitten by an ant is lying. After a few seconds the pain got tolerable but I can still feel the needle in my vein! My arm was outstretched beyond the bed. The phlebotomist was attending to another colleague beside me which added to my nervousness for she might hit my arms accidentally. A stress ball at hand helped my blood pump out. It took me a while to fill the blood bag. As a consolation, we were given snacks, a wrist band, and a stuff toy. Amazingly, I felt good afterwards. My father and brother are donors as well. I’m glad I’m one of them now!

For those who are not medically inclined like me, here’s something I learned today.

Phle-bot'o-mist (n.)– an individual trained to draw blood, either for laboratory test or for blood donations.