BLOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOL.. Thought that would get your attention :)

Blood "Donation" Day

OK I am "donating" to myself....so pretty much it's not a donation..what would it be..I am taking something from myself just to give it back...hmmmm...It's kind of like when I shop for holiday gifts.. when I buy something for someone but realize how much I like it so I keep it and buy it again for the other person.....well it's kinda like that..ok not really..whatever ...I am just side tracking myself..maybe it's from the loss of blood ;)

Where was I ..oh yes...BLOOD!

For my surgery I may need to have blood transfusions..so the best match for blood for me is...ME! So I have to donate two pints of blood to myself . First One today..next one in 14 days..it gives me some time to regenerate some more blood to take....(and give back);)


First step in this blood situation is I had to eat a very iron rich diet the past few weeks..since I am a vegetarian and have Celiac..it makes it a little harder but the hospital hook me up for a iron rich diet for people like me :)
Raisins
Prunes
Spinach
Peas
Dried Fruit
Eggs
Peanut butter/Almond butter
etc

For the second round I will have to start taking iron supplements since you usually wait 56 days in between blood donations but I am doing the accelerated program of 14 days..

So backtracking a little I had a nice iron rich dinner w/ my Dad and Stepmom (THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!!! xoxo) and stayed over their house since they are right around the corner from my hospital.

Got to hospital at 10:15am (after eating my iron rich breakfast)
Got checked in by a nurse
1.Took My temp..no temp! Yay
2. Checked my Iron..scored a 14 (that is good..iron diet worked) Yay
3. checked my Blood Pressure..too low..huh????  Maybe because I am nervous??. Nurse: "No hunnie then that would mean it would be high"  hmmmmmm

OK so they had me drink a bottled water and 2 cans of apple juice..waited a few and then retook it..it went up a little so now I was good to go

Nurse was great...needle hardly hurt..got the blood going w/out me really feeling it..then i guess it slowed down..she said my hands were cold so she gave me a warm "hot" pack to squeeze..I guess that helped. Then I guess my vein started vibrating..so I felt a uncomfortable vibration for the rest of the donation..I guess some valves try to shut off during blood donation or something like that...I was a little confused (OK maybe a lot)..again blaming it on the blood loss...she said they would make sure that would not happen for my next donation.  The nurse and I chatted for the whole donation time which was nice because it took my mind off the whole blood draining thing....getting close to the end of my experience the nurse asked me if I was OK..I guess I was turning paler than normal and I did have this feeling of dizziness and nausea..she stopped the procedure..checked my pressure..down again..so she put ice packs on my chest and forehead and got me a huge glass of juice and ended the donation.  Good News though..they weighed my blood and it was a pint and that was all I needed for this round so in the end..job well done :)
My dad got me a delicious fruit smoothie and some raisins we chillaxed till I was not dizzy any more and then we left...with a cool new pen and hat....Thanks Blood Center ;)

I slept pretty much the rest of the day..feeling pretty tired..they said it would be like this probably for the next few days...hopefully a good night sleep will get me on track for a better day tomorrow.  Well that's enough for now..stay tuned for Blood Part 2 in 2 weeks ;) Until then "peace out hipsters!!"

ps. A big THANK YOU to my family, friends, and all my " hip chicks" for all your support and positivity ...much appreciated!!  xoxoxo