Never ceasing to be amazed.
There’s Hope Yet!
Today’s events were extremely ironic. It was just yesterday John, C, and I were cruising along in the old Silver Sunfire and they started chatting about their recent blood donations. It appears they are soon due for another draining and inquired whether I would join them for the occasion. I sadly declined and went back in to time this past summer.
After my trip to Nashville for IYC(International Youth Convention) with the youth group, I contracted some kind of virus that took over me. When the doctor asked if I had been around anyone, I replied “Yes, about seven thousand other people at the Opryland Hotel and multiple greyhound buses for transportation.” (To this day I sweat I will never travel by bus ever again after the merry-go-round shuffle from bus to bus at odd hours of the early mornings.) The doctor looked at me blankly and then didn’t ask any more questions concerning how I caught the terrible virus. She took a look into the back of my throat and was horrified.
From there it was a trip over to the main hospital where I would have blood work done. At first, when I heard these words, I had to slowly process the idea in my head. “They are going to do something to me…maybe it’s where they draw blood…” but I was too heavily medicated and ill to even care or stress the thought. I’d never given any kind of blood before except for spills in the driveway on the bike or paper cuts in class. I just wanted to be well again. I wanted to have a voice again. I wanted to feel better. The best guess to what was wrong with me was either strep, mono, or a virus. I love my odds.
I went over to the hospital and took a seat in the chair. My first bad move was watching her poke my vein and start drawing my blood, then watching the tube after it was filling and rolling around on the table next to me. It was almost like slow motion as I stared at my little cells sloshing around from side to side inside a container labeled with my name.
I quickly stood up and waiting as my mother chit-chatted with the nurse about how knows what. It was about then when the color from the yellow poster started going grey and things got dark and blurry from the sides, it was closing in, and I started swaying. My mother looked over and said “You alright” and relied “I guess” but the nurse quickly alerted the others of my situation and landed me in a chair before I made friends with Mr. Concrete floor. It’s a funny story now, I even wanted to laugh was they were getting me juice and talking to me continuously to keep me there. I knew what they were doing, I was like a loon on drugs, I probably was.
After my doctor’s appointment, they suggested I get some blood work done to determine a few things and have a safe idea of some matters. When she said “blood work” I said in my mind “Oh no”. Not again, I don’t want to. I walked out of the office grumbling as I made my way to the car, parked practically a quarter mile away. Parking there is an art.
Back to the matter at hand, I headed over to the hospital for another possibly fateful blood work episode. “Maybe it won’t be as bad this time, I was sick back then” I said to myself. “Be brave you wuss!” was also in there too. I love my mind, it’s so supportive.
I warned the attendant of my history and she asked another nurse to stay with her incase of any emergency. She just told me not to look. I took a seat in the purpleish room and slightly felt the prick and then suddenly another prick and a wrap of the arm. I was done? What?!
I barely felt the blood being drawn. In fact, I didn’t even really feel it. I stayed focused on the sign that said “laboratory” and tried to see how many words I could get out of it. Rat, bat, and then I kept finding the rat and bat again and again. Maybe I should have tipped my head to get a little more brain to my head since I was on the losing end with my arm. Either way, I came out feeling almost refreshed, but mostly proud of myself for the great deed I did- I didn’t pass out! Now there is hope. I always wanted to give blood but was fearful and never considered it because of the experience of the summer. There is hope yet!
After my trip to Nashville for IYC(International Youth Convention) with the youth group, I contracted some kind of virus that took over me. When the doctor asked if I had been around anyone, I replied “Yes, about seven thousand other people at the Opryland Hotel and multiple greyhound buses for transportation.” (To this day I sweat I will never travel by bus ever again after the merry-go-round shuffle from bus to bus at odd hours of the early mornings.) The doctor looked at me blankly and then didn’t ask any more questions concerning how I caught the terrible virus. She took a look into the back of my throat and was horrified.
From there it was a trip over to the main hospital where I would have blood work done. At first, when I heard these words, I had to slowly process the idea in my head. “They are going to do something to me…maybe it’s where they draw blood…” but I was too heavily medicated and ill to even care or stress the thought. I’d never given any kind of blood before except for spills in the driveway on the bike or paper cuts in class. I just wanted to be well again. I wanted to have a voice again. I wanted to feel better. The best guess to what was wrong with me was either strep, mono, or a virus. I love my odds.
I went over to the hospital and took a seat in the chair. My first bad move was watching her poke my vein and start drawing my blood, then watching the tube after it was filling and rolling around on the table next to me. It was almost like slow motion as I stared at my little cells sloshing around from side to side inside a container labeled with my name.
I quickly stood up and waiting as my mother chit-chatted with the nurse about how knows what. It was about then when the color from the yellow poster started going grey and things got dark and blurry from the sides, it was closing in, and I started swaying. My mother looked over and said “You alright” and relied “I guess” but the nurse quickly alerted the others of my situation and landed me in a chair before I made friends with Mr. Concrete floor. It’s a funny story now, I even wanted to laugh was they were getting me juice and talking to me continuously to keep me there. I knew what they were doing, I was like a loon on drugs, I probably was.
After my doctor’s appointment, they suggested I get some blood work done to determine a few things and have a safe idea of some matters. When she said “blood work” I said in my mind “Oh no”. Not again, I don’t want to. I walked out of the office grumbling as I made my way to the car, parked practically a quarter mile away. Parking there is an art.
Back to the matter at hand, I headed over to the hospital for another possibly fateful blood work episode. “Maybe it won’t be as bad this time, I was sick back then” I said to myself. “Be brave you wuss!” was also in there too. I love my mind, it’s so supportive.
I warned the attendant of my history and she asked another nurse to stay with her incase of any emergency. She just told me not to look. I took a seat in the purpleish room and slightly felt the prick and then suddenly another prick and a wrap of the arm. I was done? What?!
I barely felt the blood being drawn. In fact, I didn’t even really feel it. I stayed focused on the sign that said “laboratory” and tried to see how many words I could get out of it. Rat, bat, and then I kept finding the rat and bat again and again. Maybe I should have tipped my head to get a little more brain to my head since I was on the losing end with my arm. Either way, I came out feeling almost refreshed, but mostly proud of myself for the great deed I did- I didn’t pass out! Now there is hope. I always wanted to give blood but was fearful and never considered it because of the experience of the summer. There is hope yet!
posted by Lindsay K. at 7:36 PM
1 Comments:
aahhhh..giving blood! Don't ya just hate it? They always have to dig around on me and try several places, and on both arms because apparently as soon as my body knows someone is trying to take some, the veins go into alert mode and start shutting down. I guess I don't have enough to spare! Either that or i'm stingy!
Post a Comment
<< Home