Adventures in Plasma Donating

Well, add today to my adventure tally for the week. lol. I went to ‘donate’ plasma today (how can they call it donating when they pay you for it?) and it didn’t quite go as planned. Doing the paperwork and waiting in lines and whatnot was kinda expected, though I didn’t really expect quite so many people. It wasn’t too bad, though. I texted two of my friends when I first got there and told them that if I died or disappeared, that I was at this donation place last. lol. It was in such a horribly rundown part of town and a bunch of homeless people were just hanging out everywhere. The parking lot was back behind the building (it had HUGE potholes) and it made me nervous to have to walk all the way from the back of the parking lot out to the street and through all the homeless people to get to the front doors. The parking lot isn’t huge, but it’s very secluded. But, I made it inside alive and that’s when the real adventure started.

I got inside and had to wait a while before watching an informed consent video and then doing an intake interview. Then I had to go to this other section and answer 53 questions to make sure I qualified, that I was healthy and was informed of all rules and regulations. Then I went inside another room and got weighed (130lbs with my shoes on. Woohoo!), had my blood pressure and temperature taken and then they did a finger poke to test iron and protein levels. All that stuff was good. Then I went into ANOTHER room to have a mini physical (really, why pay to go to the doctor when you can get screened for blood pressure, blood problems, STDs and general physical well-being for free and then get paid to lounge in a chair for an hour and a half?). That was funny. I’m not sure if the guy was a nurse or a doctor, but he was really nice (and cute) and he was funny, too. I want to say he’s from Africa because he had a slight accent, but I didn’t ask. Anyways, that was funny because he went to check my lymph nodes and then pulled back and asked me to move my hair. My hair wasn’t even in the way, but oh well. The guy was really nice and was trying to be all funny for most of it. At one point, he was listing off all these possible side-effects and I asked him how common they are. He said ” Well, they’re actually not that common. The people who have the most incidences of side effects are the people in the 118-130lb range.” Gee. Thanks. When I weighed myself this morning, I was 126lbs. lol.

Earlier, a lady was taking in my info and she said that I’d get paid $50 for my donation and I did a double-take. People 150lbs and above get paid $50. My weight range gets paid $35. I told her I thought I was only getting paid $35 and she was all, “Oh, sorry. I was just estimating.” lol. So, the guy at the fair (he told me I couldn’t ride the horses on the carousel because the weight limit is 150lbs), the lady at check-in and the doctor guy all think I’m over 150lbs. If people keep this up, I’m going to develop a complex. lol.

So after that, they took me into this big room filled with people laying on reclining tables. It was so crazy! Row after row after row of people laying on tables, blood flowing into machines all over the place. Wow. I’m not racist or anything, but I was seriously the only white female donor in the room. It was weird. I come from a small town in Southern Utah and I think there were 3 black kids in my entire high school, so I’ve never seen so many black people in my entire life! It’s fascinating all the different shades of skin. I think black skin is really pretty. Anyways, I sat on my table for a while and watched all the other people laying there, just staring off into space. It looked kinda boring……. Thank goodness they told me I could use my nook.

When I was laying on the table as the guy was prepping my vein, he commented that I have really good veins. So I told him, “Yeah, they don’t get used much.” He dropped the needle, he was laughing so hard. Maybe I shouldn’t have made him laugh because it HURT when he stuck that freakin HUGE needle into my arm. I’m the type that I have to watch the needle go in so I can prepare myself for the pain. Now, when I was young, I had blood draws all the time because they couldn’t figure out why I was so sick all the time. I’ve also donated blood several time, which makes it so I’m used to having blood drawn. I’ve only had a problem once and that was because I was already pretty sick and they took out three vials, so I’m not a faint-hearted person when it comes to blood.

Well, this was not one of the good times. They ended up having to stop the donation because I was shaking, my body temperature skyrocketed and I was light-headed and slurring my words. That was the not-so-fun part (really taught me to eat more than a pop tart, granola bar, an ice cream snack and a few nuts before doing this). When the draw first started, I got all tingly and really cold and my stomach started feeling off. I asked one of the nurses if that was normal and she talked to me for a little while and told me I was fine, that I was just psyching myself out. A little while later, a couple of nurses came over and were looking at my machine and looking at my arm. They asked me if I was pumping my arm. Uh, no? I thought I only had to do that so the guy could find my vein, not the whole time. So, my arm was slightly darker in color than it should have been. lol. The lady told me to pump my arm and to keep pumping until the arm cuff loosened up.

To see if I could distract myself and calm my self down (i didn’t feel stressed or scared, just a little nervous), I put my headphones in and started watching Legally Blonde the Musical. I love that show. It makes me laugh and just always makes me feel happy.

Several minutes later, another guy nurse came over and was poking the needle in my arm (OW!!!!!) and then he informed me that my vein was collapsing. He gave me a wad of paper towels and told me to pump on those really hard. After a few minutes, I could hardly move my hand. I felt absolutely horrible. My body was shaking, I felt like I was burning alive, my head was spinning and feeling cloudy and I was just shaking all over.  I kept thinking “This will pass, this will pass” but I think they could tell I wasn’t feeling well because one of the nurses came over and told me she was stopping the donation and reversing it. She then started fanning me with papers to get me to cool down and another was running around getting ice packs. They got an arm rest and stuck it under my feet and the both of them just kinda hovered. It was kinda humorous, looking back on it now, but I was so mortified because EVERYONE could see that I was having a problem. After about ten minutes, I started feeling better, so I’m thankful for that.

Oh, there was one more mishap before I left, and that was not an easy thing to do. lol. They wouldn’t let me leave for a bit until they were sure I was fine. I tried to leave, but the lady at the door wouldn’t let me out and made me go back and lay down. I just wanted to go home and lay down, but they said no.

Before that, though, when the girl took the needle out of my arm, she just set the gauze down on my arm and blood just started pouring out of my arm. It got all over the arm rest, the table, my shirt, my pants and some on the floor. I think that’s another reason why they wouldn’t let me leave right away. lol. While the girl was cleaning it up, she was all, “Oh, it got on your shirt!” I looked at it and told her, “Well, it’s a good thing I’m wearing a red shirt today.” lol. She cracked up at that. Too bad the joke didn’t get me out the door. I finally got to leave and maybe I should have stayed longer.

When I got out of the parking lot and called my mom, I immediately started bawling. I was so disoriented and I couldn’t remember how to get to the freeway. I ended up going in circles for a little while. My mom accidentally hung up on me a few times (she has a bad habit of hitting the wrong button when she’s holding the phone with her shoulder), but one of my best friends, Jared, called me to see what was going on, so I talked with him while I drove home. I had found the freeway, but drove right past it. Don’t ask me why. I was so out of it. BUT, when I went to do my U-turn, I realized I was in a fast food parking lot, so I ordered some food and snacked on that while talking to Jared. That helped a lot. Or at least some.

My head still feels off a bit and I was feeling a little ill a few minutes ago, but I feel better than earlier. Moving quickly makes my head swim slightly, so I feel a little slothful with my slow movements. lol.

So, that was my crazy adventure today. When I was telling my mom about it, she was cracking up at some parts and chewing me out at others. I’m just glad I didn’t get any of the serious side effects.

Oh, and as a side note for those of you who might be wondering: they did pay me the full amount even though I only donated for 10 minutes. Yup, ten minutes into the one-hour donation and my body has a freak out. Go me. lol.