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I'm a vegan. I like glam rock and androgynous males. I have two cats. they're mystical beings. I'm going to college in less than a month.

advice

So tomorrow I'm donating blood for the first time. I'm pretty good with needles, so I'm not too nervous or anything. Anyone wanna tell me exactly what happens?

depends on the place majorly. if it's through school you won't be nearly as relaxed as if you go into a blood clinic.

assuming it's at school, you'll likely check in and fill out a whole lot of forms you'll only have to ever do once (basic information like birthday and social security number and home phone and address). from there you'll wait a while and panic like hell while you watch everyone else be first time donors.

eventually you'll get a survey with a whole lot of personal questions on it like, "have you had sexual relations with a man who has had sexual relations with another man?" or "have you had relations with anyone from africa?" and such. they're confidential and you'll probably be fine. if you answered no to all of them you'll get your iron levels checked and they'll take your pulse and blood pressure. checking your iron levels hurts the most. they prick a finger and take a teeny tiny amount of blood, but it's pretty much sucked through a narrow straw and it's nothing like normal pain.

if you pass those tests you'll finally be able to give blood. it takes about 8 minutes for me to give a pint of blood. that's when you'll do the squeeze ball and such. they'll remove the needle and have you hold your arm over your head for 30 seconds and bandage you. then you sit for a few minutes and eat cookies and orange juice (or PB&J) and go back to class.

if you're a healthy kid you won't faint. if you faint they will call (or have you call) for a ride home, usually, using the numbers you provided at the beginning. that's not really a big deal and I've never had it happen. if you go to a clinic then it'll be the same process but it'll be a lot faster and calmer.

finally, good for you for donating. milk sympathy from everyone you can that first day. everyone loves a blood donor.

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(Rating: 5) Awesome, thanks!
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