45 down, 3 to go

I donated my 45th pint to Red Cross this afternoon so I have just three more to go to get that six gallon pin.

Almost six gallons of O+ blood given.

I think/hope/wish that giving the stuff away will mean I’ve scored points and won’t need any blood transfusions myself.

Of those 45 donations, I have actually gone to Red Cross to donate 47 times. I have/had nice fat veins in the crook of my arm, and this time, I decided to use my right arm instead of the left; I used it last time.

Those blood donation needles are FAT and sort of hard to look at as they penetrate my arm; sometimes I’m up to it and sometimes I’m not, seeing that big ol’ needle poke into ME. The blood tech missed that vein today, and, with help from her supervisor, leaving it in my arm, poked around to find the vein. And failed. She apologized profusely and gave the task to the supervisor. They gave me the option of continuing, with my left arm, and looked like they expected me to say "no, one time is enough", but I was there, and didn’t want to leave without doing what I came to do, which was to get closer to that 6 gallon pin.

(I have a 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 gallon pin already but I WANT that 6 gallon pin!)

(Yeah, I am very proud of my blood donations. I am not entirely worthless, giving blood)

The poking around in my right arm hurts more than my left arm; the supervisor got it in the vein with ONE try, and although my blood was a little slow to flow (losing blood slowly is a good thing, I hope) it eventually filled the bag and I was done for another six weeks or so (they are very good at calling me just before I’m due to donate again – O positive, universal donor)

A long time ago, I used to sell my plasma, when I was more poor than I am now, but they stopped letting me do that because of the brain injury in the car wreck in 1998. I did go see my Neurophysician, who "fixed" me after I wrecked the car, and she laughed and said (I guess she felt strongly about it) "bullshit", and wrote me a note to give to the plasma places.

I did, but they lost it or something and I’m still on the national "No" list.

Dumb motherfuckers.

So, I’m back to donating my blood.

I am proud of that; not everyone can or does donate blood. Six or seven weeks ago, they called me then too, and K* was here, with her A+ blood – somewhat rare, for Portland, and she went with me to my donation. Unfortunately, she has small veins, and they didn’t have the right size needle (smaller than your normal fat American) and could not give a whole donation.

Points for her though, for going with me and trying.

Getting closer to that 6 gallon pin, pint by pint, and just three more to go.

*****