Donating blood

Monday

I got up after 8. I got dressed, then read messages for awhile. I loaded the scanned hymns onto a thumb drive. Then I went to the library to print out the hymns. We chatted for a bit. Then I went to 60B to clean for an hour and 10 minutes.

When I got back, I made and ate breakfast while reading. I was expecting Jenni any moment. Finally I decided to text her, and realized my phone was still at 60B. While driving over there, I passed Jenni and stopped to tell her I would meet her at her place. So I went and got my phone, then parked across the street from her house. I got in her car and we headed out to the Red Cross center which was close to 2 hours away. I drank the contents of my water bottle on the way.

When we got there, we were asked for our Rapidtest papers. I didn't have one but she did. However hers did not have the QR code. They wanted me to scan one and I said I wasn't set up for that. I went to the restroom and when I came back, Jenni had been called.

So I waited just a bit until I was called into a back room. There a lady took my pulse and blood pressure. She checked my ferritin level – 15. Then she asked me some questions and had me enter the answers to others on her laptop.

Finally she took me to a reclining chair. Too reclined for my comfort. We spoke as she looked for a vein in my left arm and could not find what she wanted. So she went to my right arm, probed it, and made a purple mark. Then she rubbed it with alcohol and stuck the needle in and taped it down. She had given me something to squeeze so I did. But I could feel the needle move with each squeeze. She stood by me until the packet was full.

I commented on all the bloody hand and foot prints around the room. It's only for Halloween she said. She took a couple vials for testing, and then release me to go join Jenni in the snack room. None of the snacks passed muster with me, so I drank water while Jenni ate.

Then we got in her car and went to Cabella's. I hadn't been in one before so the mountain with the taxidermied animals was interesting. Also the aquarium. The fish were very slow-moving and one on the bottom wasn't moving at all. We looked at items here and there, then checked out.

We headed back to base, hoping not to be late. I got home at 5:45. I ate some quick leftovers, then headed out to band practice at the chapel. Jenni did not come. The rest of us played through the hymns and the Christmas music. I noted places where I needed more practice. Then we packed up and went home.

Chris and I took the water jugs to the shoppette to fill them up. When we got back, I tried to catch up on messages and e-mails. I ate a banana with cinnamon. I worked on my blog. Then I made tea and we watched 3 episodes of Taxi. Chris went to bed and I stayed up to read.