blood donation

I was persuaded to donate blood for the first time by 3 of my colleagues today, in camp. Quite a good deal - get out of work for a couple of hours, what's the harm I thought. So we were laughing about all the people who refused to come along - aiyah scared of needles lah... must be too much unsafe sex... he needs to wait 3 months more to test for HIV...

Yeah it was pretty cool stuff all the way. First there was a medical questionaire and blood pressure and hemoglobin checks, then they sat us on 4 deckchair-like thingies. The nurse rubbed a hell lot of alcohol or something on my arm for a pretty long time, then injected a local anesthetic, and then the biggie came along (eh look at the needle! why, you scared ah?) Yeah, it wasn't really scary, just kinda stomach churning, scrotum-tightening, if you know what I mean.

And then we chatted, and then slowly the chatter died out. And then my left hand started growing really cold (as the nurse commented), and then everyone was done when I was only 2/3 of the way through. And then the world started turning sparkly bright florescent yellow (eh don't look so stress leh...) and then all the voices flattened into a monotone (whoa he looks damn pale) and I blacked out for maybe a second or so.

I'm dimly conscious of them pulling out the needle, wrapping up my arm real fast, and adjusting the deckchair - putting my head down and my legs up. Took me a couple of minutes to get back to normal seeing and hearing. Long time more before everything felt normal again.

Not going back again in a hurry. I've gotta replenish my blood (and my ego!)