Sunday 2 February 2014

Task #16: Donate Blood

This may be a weird task to have on my bucket list, but I felt that donating blood was a relatively easy good deed to do. I could not have been more wrong. My whole quest to give blood began about a year ago, when I was back home in Sydney for Christmas. The Red Cross kept advertising for blood donors, and I thought why not? I'd always been healthy, and as far as I was aware I had no diseases or any reason to not donate. So I filled out an application form and made an appointment. When I went to the interview stage with the nurse everything went well until she asked me where I currently lived - my reply South Africa. Which she immediately replied that I could not donate because I "most likely had HIV/AIDS". So, you can all imagine my shock, after being educated multiple times on this topic that a certified nurse was telling me that I could contract AIDS from sharing a toothbrush with people who did have the disease.

Needless to say I was devastated, not only that I couldn't donate, but that I was so offended by the Red Cross personnel. Then, I was in Mallorca about 5 months later and saw a Red Cross bus that would stop in various places around the city, so I tried my luck again.... Unfortunately, this time I couldn't donate because I had been taking medication that could affect my blood (Roaccutane), this time I wasn't as disappointed because it was a legitimate reason.

Finally, (and here comes the victorious part) I was in Madrid and saw the Red Cross bus driving around. I knew I hadn't taken Roaccutane in a while so I was in the clear. I was so excited when the doctor accepted my application and I was cleared to give blood! The nurse hooked me up to the machine and in a second blood began draining from my body. I felt like I was being converted into a vampire.... They took almost half a litre of blood, and the whole process was over in 10 minutes....






At the end, I was given strict instructions for the next 24 hours and a Fanta to get some sugar... However, I fainted regardless. Of course, the doctors freaked out and began taking off my coat and putting ice on my body to "shock my system". Keeping in mind that it was about 10 degrees outside, my system was shocked very quickly...

Other than that I managed to do my good deed, and managed to cross another task off my bucket list... Only about 50 to go...