A New Donor

Just recently I decided to donate plasma. Some extra spending money every week, not to mention that my plasma can help somebody who is unable to produce it themselves- it is an added incentive. I was very nervous about donating because I haven't ever even been able to donate blood before. For those of you who don't know, I do not eat meat so I usually have levels of hemoglobin that are too low to donate. I was afraid that I would be turned away or that I would faint, thankfully neither happened and all went well.

The night before I donated I was literally shaking in my sheets thinking about it, naturally I even had nightmares about donating. Just typical cases of horror stories; getting pricked multiple times by the needle because they're unable to find my vein, pass out or puking, and other terrible images we're rolling through my mind as I tried to fall asleep. Little did I know, I had nothing to worry about.

I drove down the road from school to BioLife and sat in my truck taking a few deep breaths before I went in. I pushed open the glass doors and a clean scent mixed with an aroma of latex engulfed my nostrils. The ceilings were high and had sky lights allowing natural sunrays to shine inside giving the donation center a more cheerful feel. People were everywhere and I had no clue how to get started, thankfully as a new donor the nurses/doctors give you preferential treatment. I was offered the option to back out at any point but they made me feel comfortable enough to continue with the process.

I was headed to the "RED" section where I layed on a rather comfortable curvy chair. A nurse came over and described everything she was about to do to me. Yes it did sound horrifying. I was allowed to listen to my IPod so I turned on some Jack's Mannequin and calmed myself down. Cold iodine was rubbed all over the injection site leaving a yellow stain on my skin, almost immediately after the needle was injected into my vein. I honestly barely felt a thing. The nurse told me that I had good veins which made the process easy for her. After that I layed there for 45 minutes as the process began.

Overall the entire experience was very relaxing, probably not what you expect to hear. I was able to listen to music, people watch and make a a pretty good chunk of cash as well. Nurses and even the other people who were donating all kept an eye on me as a new donor to make sure everything went well, it was reassuring.