I perseverated all night the night before on how I might bleed to death and loose my tan from the loose of blood. Irrational but true. Then on the morning, going down to the hospital I drove Gabe crazy asking him questions about when he gave blood. He was absolutely no help because he repeatedly said "I can't remember". Is that man-code for "you don't want to know" or is it just that he is a man?
I went to the pre-admission testing at Dr, Booth's (which included an order to pee in a cup--which I could not do--bad sign for the day). While talking to the nurse I mentioned my fear of giving blood and she hinted that I didn't have to do it if I didn't want to. I puffed up my chest and said, no problem. Who am I kidding?
After the cardiologist we only had 45 minutes to get to the blood band for my "donation" so there wasn't enough time to get lunch. We stopped by the gift store and got a bag of M & Ms (the universal donor candy). We went up to the 7th floor with me munching on my M & Ms all the way. When we got there a very nice young (and I stress young) girl was on the phone talking to her mother. She said she had to go and asked if she could help us. I told her I had an appointment to give blood. She eyed the M & Ms suspiciously and asked if we had eaten a meal. We told her we had a big breakfast at 7:30 (6 hours before) and she went (and I sweare this is how she sounded) "tsk, tsk, tsk---you need to eat a BIG meal right before you give blood". I showed her my M & Ms and she rolled her eyes. She sensed I was anxious and she then proceeded to tell me that when she gave blood she passed out cold and was incapacitated for the rest of the evening.Not a confidence building statement. She assured me that blood bank blood was perfectly safe, tripled screen. I actually asked if she thought Dr. Booth would be mad at me if I didn't do it. How lame is that? She told me it was fine and I figured--how can I not trust someone who calls their mother??Finally, I said to Gabe, "we're outta here" and we turned around and headed for home. Bawk! Bawk!
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