Kacang is Nuts!

Daphne was writing about her experience of blood donation about a week back, which reminded me that I hadn’t actually gone to donate blood for some time. Here’s a post of my experience when I popped by the UM Medical Center for blood donation 2 days ago.

At the blood donation center, the first thing I needed to do was to fill in a form with my personal details. On the form were a few questions to determine whether or not I fulfilled the criteria for blood donation. The criteria, as taken from the UMMC website for blood donation, is as follows:

• You are in good health today
• You are between 18 to 60 years of age
• Your weight is above 45 kg
• You had more than 5 hours of sleep
• You are free from any medical problems: e.g. high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, operation < 6 months etc
• You have not taken any antibiotics in the last one week
• You are not pregnant or just delivered
• You have taken breakfast or light lunch before donating blood
• You are not involved in any of the following activities:
  • Homosexual relationship
  • Bisexual relationship
  • Multiple sexual partners
  • Having sexual contact with those mentioned above
  • Drug abuse
• Interval between your last donation is more than 3 months

The next step was to get my blood pressure checked by a good doctor who declined to have his picture taken…

… just to make sure there was enough blood left for donation. No sense donating blood and then needing to have it dripped back into me again when I faint.

That done, a medical orderly quickly draws a blood sample for the hemoglobin concentration test and to determine my blood type…

… hemoglobin levels ok, and blood type O. O type is good, as it can be received by people of all blood types.

The nurse points me to one of the reclining chairs and puts a cuff around my upper arm. Here’s the vein from which she will draw the blood from…

… where she gives me a quick injection of local anesthetic to numb any pain from the blood collection process…

… This really doesn’t hurt. The needle was so tiny that I could hardly feel the prick. Heck, I was taking photos with my camera phone at the same time.

The donation proper starts after that, when the cannula (term from Wikipedia) is inserted into the vein…

… and in …

… and that’s as far as it goes.

The needle and tubes are secured so nothing goes flopping around when the nurse is not looking…

… while the blood is fed into a little bag on the side…

… where the machine measures the quantity of blood collected and starts beeping when it reaches approximately 450ml, the standard donation amount.

At the end of the donation, the cannula is removed and a gauze is given to me to stop the blood flow. Apparently, quite some pressure has to be applied to stem the flow of blood and prevent bleeding under the skin, which could result in a rather painful bruise. At the same time, the nurse told me to rest for a few moments for the body to adjust to the slight loss of blood.

Refreshments (read food and drinks) are always provided for all blood donors to replenish the lost blood volume and blood sugar. When I felt fine enough to leave, I grabbed some sandwiches and a cup of Milo on the way out.

The administrative officer then asked for my parking ticket and stamped it for free parking. A blood donor’s special privilege.

Well, that was that. I could try to make it sound like more, but the fact is that there is really nothing more to donating blood. It is simply not as scary as people think it is, with little side effects, if at all. There is almost no pain involved, and it is a good way of helping those in need. Try it out, every little bit counts, and you could save a life today.

Filed under: Experiences