Unlucky #97

It was just another blood drive, upstairs in the office building. My 97th donation with the local hospital, nothing unusual except that it was the first time since the business trip to Korea, requiring a call to the main office to verify that I hadn't visited any malaria-risk areas. Nice, normally low blood pressure (92 over 60-something). Everything proceeded normally, they found a good vein, I got my crayon bandage (they say they use pediatric bandages because they don't hurt as much when you take them off), and I sat down with my bottle of water and a bag of pretzels. I browsed through a couple magazines (one dated 2007), and started to realize that I didn't feel too good. I had enough time to tell the gal across the table that I needed to lay down, and the next thing I knew, I was laying on the floor with my legs up on the chair and several nurses huddled around me. Yep, I had passed out.

I know that, in books, people faint all the time. But in real life, this was NOT a pleasant experience. When I came to, I had no idea where I was or who all these people were or why they were huddled around me. My brain was in a complete fog. They put a blood pressure cuff on me, and my blood pressure was actually higher than it had been before I donated (104 over 60-something). They brought a fan over, and my brain started to clear a bit, but I really felt awful - queasy, light-headed, and confused. After a while, I tried to sit up, but that didn't work, and I laid back down. Eventually, I was able to get up and go lay down on a donor chair, and at least get up off the floor in the middle of the room. A coworker who had been there throughout the excitement checked up on me, but had to go back to work. I stayed in the donor center for another half hour or so, and eventually took the elevator back downstairs (and I NEVER take the elevator at work - that's how bad I felt). I was too light-headed to drive, so I called Mike, and he came and took me home. I went straight to bed, and eventually was able to eat some lunch, and work from home for most of the afternoon, but it was definitely not a good day.

The donor center didn't have any conclusive reasons for my reaction, after all these years. The best guess was that I was coming down with a cold or the flu, but that hasn't turned out to be true, almost a week later. Just a fluke, I suppose, because they'll let me donate again. I think I'll skip one blood drive just to be on the safe side though...I surely don't want to go through this again.