#7 Donate Blood: Check!

So back in February I wrote this post about how I tried to give blood but couldn't because my hematocrit was only 35, and it has to be 38 to donate. This meant I was just very slightly anemic. Although I didn't have the complete analysis to prove it, it was most likely related to my iron levels, because I had a normal complete blood count from 2 years previously.

Yesterday 3 months later I tried again.

Verdict?

I'm missing a unit of blood!! YAY!

The blood bank is actually super nice. Big comfy chairs, country music going. I brought some study materials but did find it kind of hard to focus. It didn't take that long anyway. I made the mistake of looking at the needle, which is unfortunately enormous, but it didn't hurt as much as I expected. I still had a little lightheaded/nauseous feeling when it first started. Medical types will understand me when I say vasovagal, but I recovered with a chair tilt and a cool cloth and felt fine by the time we were done. 

Back in my previous post I wrote about some changes I planned to make to try to boost my iron. I tried it, I really did. I have a bottle of iron tablets in my pantry, but I'm going to just be straight with you - they were way too constipating and I couldn't take them.

So I tried to at least take my multivitamin with iron in it, and usually I did an okay job of remembering.

And I didn't really make any other changes. However, my blood apparently made a great recovery, because my hematocrit was 44.

This isn't actually very accurate I'm sure, because it flowed super slow, meaning I was kind of dehydrated, so it just seemed like 44, when it was really probably more low-normal.

But they were able to get it, and that means #7 of my 25 by 25 can be checked off the list! Also that I helped save lives or whatever, nbd.

Afterwards I drank a full bottle of water and balanced my blood sugar with an almond/raisin snack.

I was still really tired for the rest of the day. Like couldn't catch my breath after walking across the house, but John took care of me and today I feel fine.

I'm looking forward to the next one.

Do you donate blood? Or have any stories about it? I'd love to hear.