I've been anxiously engaged for quite a number of years now in my calling as the Stake JustServe committee chair/specialist, and every month I post the Red Cross Blood Drive. I finally worked up the courage to do my FIRST blood donation in August. For years (believe it or not) I didn't meet the required weight minimim (110 lbs), and I had a phobia of needles! But over the last several years of having to do multiple regular lab tests, I've discovered; that I'm not as frightened as I used to be of being stuck with a needle, I have good veins, and I've exceeded the weight requirement, uugh!
Everything seemed to be going smoothly. I had done all of the pre-donation questions and signed up for an account ahead of time. I arrived on time, and chatted leisurely with a few other waiting donors. I proceeded to a table to relax while my blood was drawn. No problem with my veins, process went well. As they directed me to the canteen area to refresh with some juice and cookies, I was instructed to let them know if I felt faint or dizzy and to lay my head down on the table and would recieve help. It was then that I felt that sickening feeling of warmth creep up the back of my neck, the dryness from in my throat and the beginning of that tunnel effect in my vision. I indicated my need for assistance…and that was the last I remember.
I have never fully passed out in my life and have only rarely felt the symptoms before placing my head down below my knees and recovering quite quickly. But this time I was out, cold! When I started to regain a grasp on consciousness, I was being held up under my arms by two women while a third one encouraged me to throw up in the bucket provided. I started to slip back into a faint and was roundly doused with cold water on my head, face and neck. The throwing up proceeded! As they noticed I was only bringing up fluids, they instructed me I should have had something to eat before donating! I hadn’t. I was running behind that morning and though I did my best to drink plenty of fluids, I neglected to read the importance of eating beforehand.
Over the next hour, I kept throwing up and fainting in what was becoming a vicious cycle! There was no way it was relenting. At that point the staff said I’d need fluid replacement by IV, and that 9-1-1 was to be called if I couldn’t manage to get up and go home! I was in no condition to even be transported off the table I’d been placed on (with ice packs, soaking wet) by my daughter. By this point my high blood pressure reading of 140/88 had dropped to what was a “normal” b/p of 120/70. Unfortunately that was quite a drop from where I’d started, and where my readings have been for the last year.
I remember vaguely coming-to and realizing paramedics were there and transporting me to an ambulance. After initially giving them answers to their questions, I crashed big! I didn’t regain consciousness till we arrived at the emergency room, where I heard them yelling my b/p had dropped to 50/33, and they were squeezing the bag of flood in urgency to re-hydrate me. We were held in an ambulance bay till a room could be located, and basic info and care was given. I continued to vomit (which went for at least 4 hours) and faint. An ER doctor hung a larger bag of fluids but I continued to not do well, all though my faint time was shorter, and I was down to bile and spit and dry heaving.
When I was finally admitted to a ER room, the nurse quickly accessed that although the ER dr had hung the IV, she had failed to “run it”. Within a short time of the nurse turning it on I slowly started feeling better! It could have saved me at least 2 hours of discomfort had the dr paid closer attention.
Lots of things were setting up the perfect storm! I should have had something to eat, I shouldn’t have been told to vomit to make my faint-feeling “feel better”, cold water thrown over my body leaving me soaking wet shouldn’t have been used, and an arrogant ER dr whose pride in taking care of gunshot wounds and stabbings, had her overlook basic care in a patient she didn’t deem traumatic enough.
In the end, alls well. But it definitely has me thinking if I’ll attempt to do a blood donation anytime soon! I think for now I’ll try to find other ways to serve in my community through… JustServe.org
