Donating blood

I donate blood because I am healthy and becasue I can. Many, I know can not and should not. However, if you are healthy and able, I encourage you to do so. It's easy and generally does not take a lot of time. Having said that, I recall the time we went to a special blood drive at Citizens Bank park were over 10,000 went to donate and that did take forever. But we did get a tour of the ballpark including the Phillies dugout while we waited. Normally, though, it takes no more than an hour.


If you are squeamish, then don't look. I use the time to close my eyes and rest. Although sometimes that causes the attendant to check me to see that I didn't pass out. Just relax and let the blood flow. You do not have to watch. It doesn't hurt. Really, it doesn't. In fact, the finger prick they do to test your iron levels hurts more than the donation part.


I have been donating blood more or less since I was first eligible to do so at 18. I say more or less because there have been chunks of time when I did it regularly and other times when circumstances made my visits less frequent. For example, there was a period of about two years when they would not allow me to donate because I had a false positive test for hepatitis C and although they acknowledged that it was likely a false positive they had rules (which I understand) and could not allow me to donate. I came back in their good graces when - given a shortage of donors - they invited people like me to be restested and if the result was negative we could donate again. I restested negative.


Then there was the time that I couldn't give for about six months because I couldn't pass the iron level test. I finally went to the doctor for that one and found out I had seriously low iron levels (attributed to my increase in activity when I started training for distance walking). I managed to get my iron back up to acceptable levels with the help of iron supplements. I am sharing these detail in case I can help someone else not to give up if their donation attempt is deferred for similar reasons.


In 2008 I donated only once before I started marathon training. I wasn't sure how donating blood might affect training runs. Today ING, a tenant in our office building, organized a blood drive. Today is a day off from training for me and tomorrow is a scaled back mileage week. Combine that with the knowledge that my goal race right now is not until January, I knew that I could afford a bad run tomorrow or to skip altogether if necessary and still be on target.


So I signed up for a 9:15 am appointment. This blood drive was conducted in an actual bloodmobile. I've never been in one before. Typically the blood drives are in a firehall or church meeting room where there is lots of space and tables. The bloodmobile is a converted bus. It has four beds and a tiny cubicle where the nurse takes your history, temperature, pulse, blood pressure and test your iron levels. All was good; my pulse was 68 and blood pressure 98/60. That's more or less typical for me although it's been a while since I dropped below 100 for that first number.


I proceeded to the bed and was drained of one pint of blood plus the little extra bottles they take for testing. The stick site would not stop bleeding right away (that's happened to me before) so I had to lie there with my arm up in the air pressing on the site for a little bit longer than usual. They bandaged it and allowed me to sit up and proceed to the 'canteen' which on the bus was a seat at the front end with a cooler. I took a cranberry juice box and drank all of it. The nurse asked me if I was ok and I said yes (I felt fine) and she released me to go back to my office.


My stay in the canteen lasted all of 5 minutes. Typically, it's more like 15 minutes and the nurse is very particular about making you stay that long. I've always thought that was silly when I felt fine.


Silly until today.


I walked out into the sunshine, crossed the parking lot and entered our building. I waved to the people lined up waiting their turn and headed up the steps. As I climbed I started to feel a little dizzy. I went to the washroom and sat down. I put my head between my legs and rested there for a few minutes. My skin was clammy and I felt weak and short of breath. I was shaking a bit. I waited for that to subside and walked to my office. I have my own space in our office with a door that closes. I went straight to it not even stopping to say hello or to let anyone no officially that I was back. I closed the door and sat down at my desk. I could feel the blood draining from my head. It was a bizarre feeling. Fortunately one of my co-workers had noticed me coming in and followed me. She came in and took one look and said I'm going to get you some juice. While she did that I pulled out the instructions from the blood drive. "If you feel dizzy, lie down with your feet elevated above your head until the feeling goes away". I promptly dropped to the floor and put my feet up on the chair. After about 5 minutes I felt better. I sat up and drank the juice and ate a couple of cookies. I filled my water bottle and began drinking in earnest (I would have done that anyway). I had to put a sweater on for about an hour.


I recovered nicely and I'm fine now. I have never had that reaction to donating before. I attribute it in most part to not staying in the canteen area long enough. So a word to all those who, like me, scoff at the idea of sitting there for 15-20 minutes eating pretzels and drinking juice and water. It's not for nothing that they make you do that.


Tomorrow I will got to my scheduled group run. I will run if I feel well enough to do so. I'm hoping I do because I'm curious if there will be any effect on speed and perceived effort.