I actually had this earnest wish for 6 years now. To donate blood! And I finally did it. It was a joyous occasion for me. I was proud of myself. I will let you know why. :)
It all started when I was doing my MBA. There was a blood donation camp happening in Bangalore at that time. I read about it and was intrigued when I came to know that they were coming to our college. So the camp members had a session with our batch and after their speech I got really into it. Hearing about the number of people especially children, who die due to the scarcity of blood in the blood bank really pushed me. I called groups of students and motivated all of them to volunteer for blood donation. I made all of them sign up and stand in the long queue for the donation. In fact, the seniors also were there right next to our batchmates.
It was a satisfying experience until my turn came up. A nurse pricked my thumb for checking the haemoglobin level and she rejected me. I asked for the reason and was told that my haemoglobin level was below the normal level and that it is the basic criteria for eligibility. I could feel all the stares on me since I was the enthusiastic one who got them to sign up in the first place. I requested the nurse to anyway take my blood. She said that if I donate then I would have to be immediately given blood. :) So I left the queue sad and could hear some people laughing.
It is all history now as I successfully donated blood on Thursday and this time I had the required haemoglobin level. After all, the constant effort of eating healthy, especially increasing the iron content in my food paid off. I had seen the clinic on my way back home from office while walking towards the subway. I had just joined work on Tuesday. I was still getting to know the area. One look at the clinic and like a reflex action, I entered the clinic and signed up for donating blood on Thursday.
When the nurse was checking my haemoglobin levels, I was kind of nervous but that's because I was thinking about what happened the last time I tried donating blood. However, she approved my application and I was very happy. After that everything moved fast. All the formalities of form signing, interview on disease got over. The needle was kind of unusually big and the nurse did say that it is bigger than my vein. Ok let me word it better. The vein she found on my hand was small. :)
I was so ecstatic that I did not even feel any pain. After all, I was finally donating blood.
After about 12 minutes, she said its over. I never knew she literally meant it. It seems no more blood was coming since it was a small vein. The nurse said I had no reason to worry since they had collected enough blood for a child. Only enough for a kid? I felt sad and disappointed for just a moment after which I thought at least I did it.
It took me so long but I finally did it. :)
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