The Red Stuff

Today, I gave away 500ml of my finest claret. That's right. I donated blood for the first time - extra virgin blood!

I saw a placard asking donors to head to the Grand Buffet yesterday. Knowing that they were going to be there today, I ate a T-bone steak for dinner. Then this morning, I had breakfast of
toast
eggs
bacon
sausage
mushrooms
spinach
tomato
hash brown
and baked beans.
Unfortunately, by eating so much I limited the amount of water I could chug down. After being weighed (54kg) and having my blood pressure taken (120/70), I had an iron reading and had to disclose what I'd eaten/drunk in the hours prior and have my iron levels taken. They were quite impressed with the food, not happy at the water, and surprised at the iron.

Its kinda funny watching your own blood spurt out of your body. The nurse got it on the first go, but after watching it slow down quickly, she rotated the needle. And damn if I didn't feel every little turn it made! It seems you can donate 500ml or lie there for 20 minutes. Any more (time or blood) is not ok in this country. I'm not sure how long I was lying there for, but after a while the machine I was hooked up to started beeping. I'd reached 400ml but the flow was too slow. I was instructed to squeeze my fist to encourage the flow to get faster and I did manage to fill the last 100ml but it was pretty hard going. Then they had to take some samples to do extra testing and because it was so slow, the nurse kinda...tapped...the tube and needle in my arm to make it go faster. Man, that hurt too.

But then I was given food to make the hurt better. And it worked!