Blood Drive

Last week I was visited by two of the nice women who work in the HR dept at my office. They came into my office kind of quiet and serious and mentioned that the blood drive was coming up. Me, still caught up in the season of giving said-kind of before thinking it through- "Oh yea, I was meaning to sign up for that." One of the women quickly said "Great, we have 10:45 open next Thursday...does that work?" Umm, sure. "Terrific, it only takes an hour from registration to cookies. I'll send you a confirmation email. See you next week, and thanks!"
Ambushed!
I know its for a really good cause, but I have never done it, much less in a conference room that I attend meetings in, I have heard stories of people passing out after donating, and to be honest, I am kind of overly attached to my stuff, so imagine how I feel about literally giving away a part of myself.
I was telling this guy as we waited for our appointments that I was nervous, had never done it before, blah, blah, blah. And he was laughing, telling me I would be fine. I go through the whole registration and walk into the next room where they have all these cots set up and I immediately see the guy who was assuring me I would be fine. He had just finished donating and he was white as a ghost, laying on the cot, surrounded by Red Cross workers applying cold rags to his head.
Not good. I settle into my cot, and the guy tells me he's fine, there's nothing to worry about. Sure. The poor Red Cross girl is searching both arms for a 'good vein' and finally settles on my left arm, gets me all set up, hooks me up with a soda and away we go. I asked how many tubes they take and the girl said 6. Great, I got blood work done a few years ago and they took 9 tubes, so this should be no big deal. A few minutes later I look across the room at another cot and I see a bag hanging on a little metal rack on the floor.
M: "So, what's the bag for?"
RC: "Its for the blood"
M: "Oh, you are going to fill up that bag?"
RC: "Yes, did you think we were only taking the tubes?"
M: "Well, yea. But I guess that makes sense, I mean those little tubes are probably not going to do much for anyone, right"
She laughs.
M: "How much goes into the bag?"
RC: "Its one pint"
M: "Wow, how many pints do I have total"
RC: "Between 6-8"
M: "Hmmm, so how long is it going to take until I get that pint back"
RC: "A few days"

So that's that. Someone,somewhere will be receiving a nice pint of my old blood and I am working on growing back some shiny new blood, let's hope its high octane this time, I could use a little boost.