Survived The Second Pint!

Two weeks ago I had my second appointment with Blood Donors & this time I was determined not to go through the humiliation of having my legs in the air! I was well behaved all day, making sure I drank lots of water & eating plenty. I was a lot calmer this time round & not as anxious as I had been at my first attempt.  I also took my pac man stress ball with me as I thought it might be easier to pump my arm with than just opening & closing my fist like they ask you to. It seemed to help too, as the whole thing went smoothly & I didn't feel woozy once! Apparently they used to give out stress ball things to people to do this but it was stopped because of 'contamination'. I mean seriously, just throw them all in a bucket of sanitizer after use. But hey, I took my own! 

The only down side is that just like the first time, I got up the following morning, removed the plaster & within minutes - another fainting spell. I had to park my ass on the floor before I passed out. 

So far my families conclusions are:

- I'm a huge wimp

- My blood pressure drops dramatically for some reason

- I am allergic to giving blood (joke) 

- For some reason my body does not like getting up early after I gave blood the day before. ;)

It's odd, because I have never had fainting spells until I gave blood for the first time, but it is bizarre that it happens the following morning & not the same day, I have been told by a nurse that it 'isn't normal' & I am not usually that squeamish with blood or cuts or anything - on myself or others. Though to be honest it does seem to happen directly after I remove the plaster from my arm, so I have a feeling that perhaps for some reason my unconscious self gets squeamish & woozy even though I do not in myself feel anxious or alarmed about the plaster or the hole in my arm. My next tactic is to keep the plaster on until the following afternoon so that I can take it off after work when I am safely at home. 

Obviously if I still feel faint the morning after I might have to consult one of the blood donor help lines & ask for some ideas. I really don't want to have to give up donating when I only just started because of this, which a nurse at blood donors did suggest might have to happen if it happen's again. (This time I didn't tell them it had) I'm giving it one more go to see what happens when I leave the plaster alone.