After an unintentional delay, I finally made it to United Blood Services to make a blood donation. The "bloodmobile" was at work last week and I scheduled an appointment, but I had to go to the RTO to provide technical support for a meeting that our company was having there. As a result, I ditched my appointment. They were obviously tracking me because I received a call days later to reschedule. This I did and I went in yesterday.

It's been a while since I've done a double-donation, so yesterday I went for the gold. Everything was going along swimmingly until the blood tech started to look distressed. She kept pressing on the needle that was in my arm, which was fun because it helped me to relive the initial stick over and over! She began to look more and more troubled. She brought a hot pack over to put on my wound as she continued to poke at my arm. The placement of the arm cuff and my sleeve prevented me from being able to see what was happening. About halfway through the process, another tech came over to see what was happening. She assured the other girl that everything was okay, but to slow down the machine.

Finally, the donation was done and they pulled the needle out. It was finally explained to me that fluid was leaking in my arm, causing some bruising. I was told that I need to keep heat on my arm and they gave me some extra heat packs to accomplish that. I now have a weird mark on my arm, but I'm alive. For a while I thought I was a goner.