“It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.”
-Mahatma Gandhi
This quote, from the well-known Mahatma Gandhi, is what I realized the day that I donated my blood to help another in need. Many people take their own good health for granted, but once your health is taken away you find it much more valuable.
The Oklahoma Blood Institute always makes sure that all of the donors know one thing; your donation will save three lives. Why do they tell us this? Most of us are just trying to get out of class or get the Blood Cords at graduation. Honestly, I wanted the cords. Until I realized how it actually felt when you are low on blood. You save three lives when you decide to donate your blood. They tell us this because that should be the reason you are donating your blood, not because you want to get an hour break from school work or get to wear even more cords on your graduation day. Although many people do not realize this, I did, and now I am going to tell the story of how I came to this conclusion.
Waiting for your turn to go sit in that chair in the little blue booths isn’t even close to the most nerve racking part. You get to that seat and you fill out some information, get your vital signs taken, answer questions, and finally get your finger pricked. Once you get through the pricking, which most believe is the worst part, you are giving a bag with a sheet of paper in it and all of these latex tubes and bags. You are then advised to go wait for your turn on the tables; this is where it starts to get real. Needles are being stuck into the arms of all of your friends and most seem to be doing fine, some have been better. You never think that you are going to be the one to react badly to the donation, but it could happen to anyone.
I get to the table and lay down, the nurse takes my bag and asks me the normal questions, “Are you allergic to latex or any of the medications listed on the sheet you looked at prior to your donation?”. My answers are no so we begin the process of saving those three important lives they had mentioned before. The nurse finds my vein and prepares me for the worst part, the big round needle that will invade my vein and transfer my B+ blood from my body to one of those latex sacks. I seem to be doing fine so far, I feel great! Although that didn’t seem to last all too long; I started to get nauseous, hot, and really tired. I told the nurse as soon as it started to happen and immediately they lay me down and put ice packs and fans on me. Once that doesn’t help they have me breath in some type of medicine that will make my sick feeling go away. That helps and we finish my donation and they send me to sit down with cookies and a Gatorade. I seemed to be doing great, but turns out I wasn’t great enough to go anywhere yet.
I already wasn’t feeling too great that day, I needed to use the bathroom but I was too embarrassed to ask anyone to go with me, so I decided I was well enough to get there on my own. I started my trek over from the auditorium seat I was in all the way to the lobby that contained the stairs that I would have to climb to get to the hallway that the girl’s restroom was located in. I made my way to the railing of the stairs and after that is kind of a blur, I was told by a fellow classmate that he had seen my body on the ground from where he had been seated from just donating; he was the one who found me and began to help me come to. I was told that my body was stiff and hard to move as he and his brother had tried to maneuver me down to the bottom of the lobby without dropping me down the stairs. While they were on the outside doing all of this to me I was on the inside feeling like I was dreaming, having the best sleep I had ever experienced before. I woke up to one of my teachers saying “Amanda, are you okay? Wake up Amanda, you passed out.” I looked at her and all of the others crowded around me and I was very confused. Once I was awake I had felt fine but turns out my body hadn’t done so well to the blood donation I had just given.
This is the feeling that I know many people probably feel after they lose large amounts of blood, but they have to wait much longer to feel better. They have to wait to receive a donation to start to feel any better, while the people donating are perfectly well enough for their own bodies to make new blood. This is what caused me to come to the conclusion that giving blood is an important thing to do if you are able. No one should have to feel the way I felt or even worse when they shouldn’t have to. Whether they had a bad accident or their bodies just have a hard time creating more blood, everybody deserves a helping hand.
So after the big adventure that I went through that day donating my blood I still continue to donate because I would like for no one to have to feel worse than I did that day because they are not able to get a blood transfusion. All in all I am very thankful for my good health and with that I will do my best to continue to share it. So I push anyone capable of donating their blood to do so because of one reason, not for the cords and not to get out of class, but to save those three lives.