ARK 5- Donate Blood

Wow.  What a day I had yesterday!  Evelynn has pink eye so we didn't go to church.  :(  I had my appointment to donate scheduled for 11:45 so after a quick snack at home we headed out.  The blood drive was at a church so I did a Google maps which Mister Husband didn't want to take because he said he knew a better way!  I told him the physical address and the name of the church (Hilldale Baptist).  We are driving along and he sees a church named Hilldale but the address isn't right.  He turned in anyway.  We get inside and there is a service going on!  It wasn't Hilldale Baptist it was Hilldale United Methodist Church!  Oopie!  At that point I had 2 minutes to be at my appointment.  We hurried along and found the right Hilldale church.  We were only a few minutes late and had to wait anyway.

We wait for a while and Bunkins doesn't really like to wait so she is being a fussy butt.  One of the workers said that she could have something from the snack table so we got her a bag of animal crackers and an Orange Juice.  She was pretty happy about that.  She also took my sticker when they gave me a new one.  I started out with a red sticker with my name on it but when they found out it was my first time they switched it out for a green one with my name on it.  She also got one with her own name on it because a worker thought she was cute and wanted to make her happy.


Here she is with her crackers and juice.

Mister Husband playing on his phone

The two of us being in love

I got called back to fill out some questions and get the finger prick (loads of fun!) and somehow grabbed E's sippy cup.  The woman asking me questions said that she would bring it to her so that E wouldn't get upset over seeing me and then having me disappear again.  She said that when she handed E the cup that E told her "Thank you."  I am so glad she is finally getting manners down in front of other people.  She will say please and thank you at home but if there are others around she is a mute.

I passed all the questions and tests so they got me set up in an awesome table cot thing that tilts and what not-it didn't have cup holders though!

As the nurse is getting my arm all set up the guy on the cot in front of my faints!!  The dumby didn't eat before he donated!  Hello?  That's like the most important thing to do when you donate blood!  She told me not to let that scare me that it isn't something that happen often.

Here I am with my beautiful purple blood

My awesome green sticker, O.J., and a bag of pretzels

Once the bag was filled I asked her if it would be weird if I took a picture of my bag of blood.  I got my phone ready and when I looked over I saw the .16 gauge needle sticking out of my arm!  The room went black.  The next thing I remember was hearing the song "What a Savior" by Laura Story which was playing on the radio when we were driving over, and lots of people saying my name.  There was lots of cold water on me!  Good times.  There was a large group of people circled around me to make sure that I was okay.

After a little bit-I don't know how long-they let me stand up and walk over to the snack table.  I sat and ate some cookies, drank more juice (3 cans and a water bottle-my tummy hurt!) and just relaxed.  I ate too much or something because all of a sudden I was telling Dan that I didn't feel well.  The nice worker woman brought me a bag to puke in but that wasn't the type of tummy pain I had because once again I was out.  The next thing I remember I was lying on the floor with my feet up on a chair.

A few minutes later they moved a table-cot over to the snack area and set me up right there.  I waited there for quite a bit.  They checked my vitals a lot.  We ended up staying there for about 2.5 hours for a 15 minute procedure.  Good times.

They finally said that I could go and Mister Husband brought the car around and turned the air on so I wouldn't be uncomfortable.  We stop at the store so he can get some Biscoff spread.  He has been searching for it since we got to Tennessee!  He got a jar and me a bag of mini peanut butter cup!  As we were driving home we were talking about how my body probably doesn't produce a lot of blood-just enough to keep me alive not enough to give away.  The blood talk got me woozy so I cranked the air down and put my seat back.  I feel bad because when I did that I smushed Bunkin's legs.  Mister Husband told me and I quickly bumped my chair up a bit.  I went black-again.  Only this time we were driving and I threw up.  I don't know if we pulled over or if his medic skills took over but he got me back.  I was covered in vomit.  Fun.

Thankfully I had just done a load of towels that morning and they were still in the dryer.  Mister Husband got the seat belt cleaned so the mess wouldn't spread.  I got up and stripped in the basement.  Thankfully the car blocked the garage so I was hidden from view.

I got upstairs, and into the bathtub.  Medic husband told me to take a cool bath to get cleaned up.  He then told me that I should only put on a sports bra and underwear because I needed to keep cool.  I was freezing!  He put some blankets on the floor with a barf bucket.  He called his boss and let him know what was going on in case things got worse and he wouldn't be able to go to work in the morning.  He also called his dad, an EMT, to see if he had any advice.

***EDIT***  His dad is a paramedic not an EMT.

I was told that if I fainted one more time I would be going to the hospital, no questions asked.

I rested for the rest of the day and was able to nap for a bit.  Mister Husband told me later that Bunkins poop painted her crib for me.  Poor guy.  He did a lot for us yesterday.

I am now at home with a whiny two year old with orders to check in every hour or Mister Husband will leave work to drive home to check on me.  He has also told me that I am not going to donate blood again.

The nurse did tell me that I could help up to 3 people though so I call that a win!