8. Donate blood

Even though I am horribly afraid of needles, I wanted to donate blood. There are quite a few people I know who have needed blood in the past and they got it from blood donors, so I thought that I should do my part to help and donate as well.
On August 19th I went with my friend Trisha Caspersen to donate, unfortunately both of us could not get in at the same time so when Trisha goes to donate I will be going with her for moral support.
The donation process began with one of the nurses taking down some of my information, like my name, phone number and address. She then took a small needle and pricked my finger to get some blood, after squeezing the puncture site for a couple seconds she used an eyedropper to collect the blood and drop it in to a chemical solution. The solution is used to make sure that there is enough iron in your blood for you to be able to donate. If the blood drops to the bottom of the container within 15 seconds you are good to go. My blood dropped quite quickly, and I was given a questionnaire to fill out, that had to be done completely in private. After filling out the forms, I was lead into another room, where I was interviewed by a nurse about my previous sexual partners and my blood pressure, pulse and temperature were checked. Since everything was normal I was given the green light to go donate. I was given a big reclining chair to sit in and another nurse came to try and find a vein. After checking both arms, twice, she found a suitable spot on my right arm and began preparing to put the needle in. It didn't actually feel like much, there was a pinch and I felt a slight tingling going up my arm, but it passed quickly and before I knew I the nurse was already collecting my blood in to the vials that she had prepared. About five minutes later, one of the nurses noticed that my blood was pumping quite slowly, so I was given a warming blanket to warm me up, and it worked within seconds. Once I was all done, I was told to stay seated and put pressure on my arm where the needle had been. I was feeling alright, but I was light-headed all of a sudden, one of the nurses came rushing over saying that I had gone quite pale and she asked if I was feeling okay. After explaining I was light-headed, my chair was flipped up, so I was almost upside down, and there were three more nurses scattering around me pressing cold compresses to my wrists, forehead, neck and joints, I was given a juice box a couple minutes after and was told to drink it slowly. Trisha thought the whole thing was absolutely hilarious and was laughing in her chair beside me while I was drinking my juice. Ten minutes later I was ready to go, and I was told to sit in the waiting area and have one more juice box and some cookies before I left.
The experience wasn't completely traumatizing, and now that I have done it I feel that I have done my part in helping someone who needs it. I think I will donate blood again, just maybe not too soon.