I Put My Big Girl Panties On And Dealt With It!

This is one of my mom’s favorite expressions; “Put your big girl panties on and deal with it.”  She even has it on a magnet on their refrigerator.  It’s good advice sometimes.  Today was one of those times for me.

I kept my blood donation appointment today.  It wasn’t my first time giving blood, but it was my first time going by myself.  My husband usually goes with me (I HATE needles and the sight of blood makes me woozy, so I feel like I need the moral support, and the hand holding), but he had to work today.  There was a blood drive during my lunch hour, right across the street from my office building.  We’ve been getting a lot of mail, email, and calls about making a donation appointment because apparently there’s a real shortage right now.  I’m O Positive, so I feel really guilty about not donating when I’m able to.

So today I decided to put my big girl panties on and deal with it.  I went across the street, all by myself, during lunch and gave blood.  Everything went very well.  My hemoglobin was more than high enough to donate.  This has been an issue for me in the past, so I was very happy with the number.  Apparently taking the vitamins my acupuncturist recommended is paying off!

The group of Red Cross employees turned out to be the group that has always been my favorite.  This particular group is always really nice and always manages to keep everyone laughing.  I consider it a major accomplishment to make someone laugh while you have a needle in their arm.  They realized it was my first time coming without my husband today, so were extra nice and reassuring.  

During the actual donation I ended up between two other donors who were good company and very entertaining.  One was a retired hockey player and first time donor, so I was actually reassuring him that the lady drawing his blood does a really good job.  I remember the first time I went the long time donors were all really nice to me, and kept telling me everything would be fine.  I was a nervous wreck that day, and really appreciated them being so nice, so now I try to do the same for anyone who says it’s their first time. On my other side was a veteran and long-time blood donor, so he had some pretty interesting stories to share with us.

I would definitely rather go with my husband to give blood, but it’s nice to know that I can go by myself when I need to.