This morning I gave blood. I like doing this for several reasons.
1) Being a blood donor is like being part of an elite club. A club that gets to feel superior to the people who are too wimpy to give blood. And you get to compare your needle marks to everyone else’s and (if you’re me) show off how long it takes your body to heal itself. (One time the mark on my arm looked fresher than the mark on my dad’s arm, and he had donated a few weeks after I had.)
2) Donating blood is one of the easiest philanthropic things you can do, especially if the Blood Bus comes right to your office. It takes about an hour of your time, and you may help to save somebody’s life. I would guess that most people would find it harder to give $20 to the church general fund on Sunday morning than to give blood.
3) When the Blood Bus comes to my office, my company pays me to sit for an hour with a needle in my arm. If it were physically possible to give blood every day of the week under these conditions, I might do it just for this reason.
4) It is fun to say “Blood Bus.”
Here’s something I have trouble remembering about blood donation: your body gets a little confused. It’s thinking, “Wait…I needed that blood! What did you do to me?” (This is because your body sees blood like you see that $20 in your pocket. It just doesn’t let go without some sort of a fight.) Usually your body puts you in a timeout after you give blood, so you can think about what you’ve done.
I forget that I am not at optimal performance levels right after giving blood. I try to move as quickly as I usually would. (When we were at my old office, I’d get off the Blood Bus, walk briskly to the steps, and jog up them. Almost every time. Never once a good idea.) Today I felt lightheaded for a few hours after donating, so I forced myself to move slowly.
I say “forced” because moving slowly is not something I remember easily. It usually feels like a waste of time (unlike, for instance, spending hours on Facebook or watching old episodes of MacGyver). When I’m feeling weak, though, it becomes quite the performance art. I suddenly turn into a Jane Austen heroine. It’s really quite entertaining.
Let’s go give blood together in a few months and you can see what I mean.
1 comment:
I know just what you mean about the whole blood donation thing. I always do feel a little elite after I donate, especially because I usually have such a low pain tolerance, but I've never had a problem with voluntarily bleeding myself.
Although I generally have a different reaction than you. I've never had any problems, but I always use the donation as a subtle excuse to myself to slow down. "Go easy on yourself today," I'll say. "Just relax. You don't have to do as much."
And, yeah, Blood Bus is a lot of fun to say.
Post a Comment