There was blood donor marathon at work today. I always try to attend. This year they said my iron was very good, so why not give double red blood cells instead of whole blood? Sure, I thought, why not. A double red donation is when they take out 2 units of blood, filter out the red blood cells, and put the plasma and whatnot back into your body. Chemo patients need the red blood cells for their therapy.

The donation usually takes around 45 minutes, so I got comfy on my cot, and the nurse hooked up the machine with all of the tubes and bags required and ran the saline through them. Then she tried to stick me with the needle. I wasn't bothered by it, it didn't hurt, but she could not get my vein. I am a hard stick, but blood donation nurses are experienced with this kind of thing and can usually get me. Not this time though. She looked at my other arm, and decided she could get that vein, and asked if I'd like to try it. Sure.

Unfortunately, the "seal" had been broken on the first kit of tubes and bags, so she had to take them all out of the machine and set up a new kit. Then she tried to stick my right arm. No good. It took 3 nurses moving the needle around before they finally struck blood. But they said the needle didn't go in all the way, it was only on the side. They took out one unit of blood, but said that if they tried to put in the plasma, it would blow out the vein and cause a lot of bruising and pain in my arm. Yikes. So they turned the machine off after one unit came out. At least they did get one unit of red blood cells from me, so I wasn't a complete loss. The whole thing took two and a half hours though. I did eat four Oreos to keep my strength up.

The nurse said the needles for the regular blood donation are longer than the double red needles, so its probably easier to reach my deep little veins with them. Next time they ask, I should remind them that I'm only good for giving whole blood.