I like to give blood. I have given over 5 gallons since moving up to Sacramento in 1997 and before that I used to give regularly to the Red Cross in West L.A. While in L.A., I recall some of my donations were in platelets but since about a year ago, I have been giving whole blood exclusively. For many years I went to the Citrus Heights facility on the corner of Fair Oaks and Greenback. Then one day, I was driving up Folsom Blvd in Folsom on my weekly pilgrimage to Winco to buy some groceries when the familiar Blood Source logo caught my eye in a small strip mall. That is a lot closer than Citrus Heights, I thought and the bike ride is infinitely more pleasant. The American River bike trail is just across the street so I immediately decided right then and there that I was abandoning the Citrus Heights location forever. The Folsom office is actually a little smaller but more modern and the nurses are sweet too. After giving a few units of whole blood, one of the nurses asked me if I wanted to try giving some platelets. She said that in some cases, I could give both platelets and whole blood. The only downside is that a platelet donation takes about 50 minutes to an hour while I could squeeze out a pint of whole blood in less than 10 minutes. When she mentioned that they have personal DVD players and all the latest movies, I decided to give it a try. Of all the times I have given blood, and that is quite a few times, I have never felt any unpleasant side effects. Yea, I might feel a slightly light headed when I first get up but after wolfing down a pastry and a few cups of cranberry juice in the rest area, I am good as new. The platelet donation machines have changed quite a bit since back in the 90’s when I gave at the Red Cross in West L.A.. They are computerized and there is only one needle for input and output. The input is some kind of citrus juice mixed with red blood cells and the output is platelets. During the process, it is common to feel numbness or tingly sensations in the lips or arms or chest. No big deal, just suck on some tums and it usually goes away. On that Sunday morning, I had a couple of large cups of tea in the morning. The nurses said to make sure to drink water to help the blood flow out easier. Before settling into the donation chair, I took a piss per instructions because it was going to be a long time - the computer calculated a 113 minute session. I have no idea how it calculates it. But in any case, there was only a little bit of piss at that point. I guess the tea hadn’t digested through my kidneys yet. After getting comfy we got started. The movie was Inception - some sci-fi movie with Leonardo DiCapprio about a team of people that can invade other people’s dreams and change their minds about things. At about the 45 minute point, I started to feel the need to take a piss. Bad timing of course since I was in the middle of donating. But at that point, I didn’t feel numbness or tingly sensations so I didn’t ask for a tums. That turned out to be a mistake as I would later discover. But my biggest feeling was wanting to pee. By the 1.5 hour point, I felt like my bladder was ready to burst but I held on. The minutes seemed to slow down. Finally, the process was completed and after waiting a couple of minutes, I rushed into the bathroom to relieve myself. I unzipped and let out and out it came out, slow at first and then building into a torrent as furious as a dam that had just burst. The pee just kept coming. I didn’t know a human bladder could hold this much liquid. After what seemed like 2 or 3 minutes, I began to feel kind of woozy standing there waiting for this show to end. By the time it did, the room started to get dark around me. I quickly bent my head over for a sec until the faintness went away and then opened the door and walked over to the rest area. I knew something wasn’t right because the room kept getting darker until I shook my head. I made it over to the refrigerator to pour myself a juice. As I opened the refrigerator door, that woozy feeling returned. I quickly poured the juice and downed it in 2 gulps because I was afraid I would pass out standing right there. I told myself to hold on. Maybe if I sat down things would get better. I sat down and tried to focus on a newspaper in front of me.
I made it to a chair at the counter and tried to focus on some article in the newspaper in front of me. The darkness returned and I didn’t have time to shake my head or place my head down. I suddenly felt too tired to keep my eyes open. I knew what was happening to me but I couldn’t stop it from happening. I laid my head down between my arms and started dreaming for a brief second before I blacked out completely. When I awoke, I was lying on the floor with my legs on the chair which had been tipped over. My first thought is that I had fallen backwards but the sight of 4 smiling nurses allayed my concerns. "David, David!", Kelly called to me. "Look, there are 4 beautiful nurses around you." That comment made me chuckle as I regained my consciousness. They told me that I had slumped over and one of them had spotted me from all the way over on the other side of the room. They apparently knew what to do and all of them sprung into action. They tipped the chair backwards so they could monitor me. I was lying right on the cold floor but it felt good because my body was drenched in sweat. The body does weird stuff when you pass out and they had used water to cool me off. My arms were tingly but after sucking on a few Tums, the tingly feeling went away. It took about a half hour before I felt good enough to get up. Good thing I didn’t ride my bike like I usually do since a trip back, though downhill most of the way would have been wobbly. I drove home about an hour later and had to call them when I got home so they would know I made it home okay. That whole rest of the day I couldn’t keep any food down. It was about the most unpleasant blood donating experience I have ever gone through. However, that being said, I plan on continuing to donate when the weather gets a little better.
