Nix McRetro
Since late 2014 I’d noticed the blood-donation van turning up every few months, so I figured why not give some blood? Wish I had discovered this thing earlier, as giving blood can even be kind of fun and, at the very least, FREE CANDY! It is not entirely without its problems though.
At my largest recorded weight, 115.4 kg, this calculator estimated my blood volume at 8.655 L. These days though…
At 82.6 kg, the same calculator gave 6.195 L, a difference of 2.46 L between its estimates. It used a fixed 75 mL/kg formula, so these were not measurements of my circulating blood volume. Assuming a 500 mL donation gives the rough 5.8% and 8.1% figures I quoted, but that arithmetic does not establish my actual blood volume or explain why I felt faint.
This particular donation did not go quite as smoothly. About half an hour after getting home I was checking emails and chatting away on the old ASSEMblerGames forums when I realised I’d been drinking so much water that my bladder was about to explode. Naturally, off to the bathroom.
Partway through I felt a sudden rush leave my head. I looked in the mirror, noticed my pupils looked rather dilated, then my vision started fading towards black and my ears began ringing. Instinctively I headed back to the bedroom and flopped onto the bed. Consciousness was never lost.
I noted the time, 3:46 pm, and spent the next 20 minutes lying there listening to some tunes. What an experience!
At the time I wrote that one of my lessons should be to reduce or skip my propranolol dose before donating.
Nope.
That is not something I should have decided for myself. Prescription medication should not be adjusted for a blood donation without checking with the prescriber and donor service. The much more sensible lesson is to follow Lifeblood’s preparation and aftercare instructions, tell them about medications and previous reactions, and let the staff know if anything starts going strange.
I also managed to reopen the needle site and bleed on the driveway before getting into the car. Which was actually excellent timing because at least I wasn’t bleeding all over the car and my fancy jeans. Donating still helps people who need it, so I’m happy to keep doing it when eligible.
Plus you get all those junk foods! :) Cheat day!
FREE CANDY! :)