I just donated my blog for the very first time in my life. Penang Island Hospital, 19 March 2007, about 4.30p.m. took about 6-7 minutes 'cause my blood happens to be F1 blood, 6 minutes and they got a bag of 400ml outta me. Thank God I didn't get into any accident that would make me bleed a lot, 'cause I'll be kering kontang(all dried up) in no time, plus the weather in Malaysia. Ugh...wow. Thank God. My blood's pack no. is 405/08 and amount of hemoglobin (red blood cells) in gram per dl is 13.8. Too much details eh....Heh.
It turns out I'm an O positive, which means, my blood will be very much useful. Well, I did the whole donating thing just because there's this new believer that used up a few packs of blood during a major operation in the hospital, it would lighten the family burden if we can replace the bags of blood used. Hey, he's a brother now! Heaven rejoices, that's the least I could do to help. We all hope that he'll be well soon. He seems like a nice guy, it would be great if he can come to our church and mess around with us like Adam did.
Oh by the way, back to the blood donation thingy. I kinda blog on this so that if anyone of you want to donate blood, it helps to know some details, and please let me know if you plan to do it soon, it would be great help if you can help replace some of the packs, they still have about 9 more bags to replace, considering mine is already replacing one. It's not painful, I assure you. And I would really appreciate it if you would try to help. I reckon a bag of blood used in a private hospital would cost a lot. So please, do let me know so I can send you the name of the patient 'cause I don't think it is appropriate to name him in public.
Well, it started with a simple test, the man in white jacket (I'm not sure if he's a doctor) asked me if I want a full blood test or take the fast track. The full test will take about 1 and 1/2 hours, and they will test your HIV, Hep B and all those. The fast one, they'll skip that, and I just took my blood test for insurance purposes a few months back so I took the fast track. Then they took one tube of my blood for testing, and I was called on after about 30 minutes. Pam, Sue Ann, Sue Lin and Peter was with me then. They all wanted to see the process. We went into the room, I lied down on a bed in the corner and the nurse took an empty pack with needle and tube and all, put the needle through my right arm and that was it.
That the little wound that is on my right arm. See? It's just that tiny.
My right arm, with the band aid on.
Blood stain of courage on the band aid. =P
Look at that! I'm so proud of myself!
They gave me something to make the part which they poke the needle numb so yea, no pain at all, no matter how big Peter said the needle is. He was just trying to scare us all. The nurse said my veins are quite thin, and slapped couples of times so that my veins can be seen. And there's this one thing that you hold on to, you have to keep squeezing it so that the pressure will force the blood out. It's like a stress ball thingy, right on time during my exam preparation period. I've personally experienced it and I can tell you that the painful part is only when the needle is poking through, once it's in, then you won't feel anything, I think piercing my ears hurt more, and the time when I was in national service, one of those metal fence railing went through my back when we were crawling through during our practical jungle tracking mission, that was way painful but I didn't notice it until a day after that, we went back to the training camp. Seriously, I even went for a mock rescue mission and night orientation with the wound on my back without noticing it.
Did I mention that the tube which my blood flowed in is warm? It is you know, so cool, it felt warm against my skin. So that was about it, the nurse even sarcasticly told us that "Those two guys that were here when you came in, took a hell lot longer." LOLz. see? That's why I named my blood flow F1 blood. Hahhahaaa...She took of the needle when I was done and covered the tiny wound with a band aid and I had to stay on bed for another 15 minutes to make sure the dizziness won't make me faint or anything. They gave me a good tea, a cuppa warm Milo drink and 2 packs of real yummy Japanese biscuits, I love the one that they made from beans. *yum* And they are organic! Such healthy yummy things. Hee....
We went to the room to visit our new friend and chatted till it was time for him to have dinner and so we left. I was even fine enough to drive. Just a short drive though, had to fetch daddy who was just 7 minutes drive away. He drove on the way back.
Okay, please refer to the 1st sentence of this post. I reli needa go get some shut-eyes now. ^^ Bye fellas! Pleaseeeee consider donating blood to help my new friend, the family is really friendly and all. I hope you guys can help =) God bless y'all!
-400ml lighter va-
P/s: "He anoints my head with oil, my cup overflows," I seek to let them flow to others. In whatever way I could.
