I am feeling so very good right now. It does not compared to the horrid feelings and anxiety I had this morning. I went in for my scheduled appointment to donate blood at a Life Source blood bank. I had donated blood a couple months before and all went well. This time however the experience was completely different. My body reacted very strangely compared to last time. I think I started feeling dizzy after only the first pint. My heart then felt to start to race and pounded heavily. I notified the nurse and she raised my chair back and elevated my feet. It didn't seem to help and I had them stop pulling more blood from me. The nurses placed a few ice packs on me and I took deep breaths so I wouldn't feel as nauseous as I felt. A couple of minutes after I seemed to feel a bit better. They had me sit up right slowly, but after few seconds I had to go back down again. After 10 minutes I thought I felt OK to sit upright again. I just felt a little nauseous but the dizziness was no more. I walked to the snack table and began to drink some juice when I felt the lightheadedness come back once more. I told the volunteer who then called the nurses. Within a few seconds I was in vertigo! They say I might have actually passed out for a few seconds. I remember feeling my heart racing even faster than before and I remember saying "make it stop, make it stop!" I might have been shouting that. Everything darkened and I saw blurry shadows, the voices echoed and I heard them farther and farther away. My fingers began to clench and tingle. I recall a girl being amazed and tried to make me laugh. She mentioned that she heard how it felt and that I should just let myself go and embrace it. I immediately responded "No!" it felt horrible. I vaguely remember around four people holding me up with ice packs all over. I think everything was pitch black for a few seconds and slowly my vision began to come back. I still felt dizzy, nauseous, numb and out of breath. Again I had to lay down this time for several more minutes with ice packs all over.
I had to call my sister to pick me up. As I left I thanked everyone for taking care of me. They wished me well and hoped that the experience would not prevent me from making a donation in the future. It truly won't, it will just be a long while before I do.
Wow, that sounded intense. I've been donating regularly for the last six years and have had a few bad reactions (lightheadedness and tingling fingers), but it's only taken raising my feet and packing in the ice to get me in the clear.
ReplyDeleteHave you been under a lot of stress lately? The one time I crashed kinda hard I was under a lot of stress at work - wasn't sleeping well - the nurse told me that could have contributed to my reaction.
Hope things are better for you, and I hope you do go back and try donating again.
I don't think I was stressed. Actually I think the reason I had such a bad reaction was because I am just getting over a bad flu. I think I was probably still weak, and because I had just eaten lunch minutes before donating blood. I don't think I gave it enough time to settle in. The morning was pretty busy. I will donate again, that's for sure. I just want to let time pass a bit so the experience is not as present in memory.
ReplyDeleteI had a simular experience. I could feel the life going out of me. I got lightheaded, then sounds sounded very far away. Then suddenly I was laughing (no idea why), but that soon left then I felt again the life going out of me. I truely believe that I was going to die. Im sure that is what it feels like to bleed to death. They put me upside down, ice on the head etc.....
ReplyDeleteI'll never donate again. I think some of us have less blood than others. And loosing that amt could kill us.