Giving blood; my experience 💉📆

I have wanted to give blood for quite a while. I think I got put off trying again after I was denied the first time I tried. What really made me book this time was the news of a school friend getting ill. She had over 200 different bloods given to her whilst she was in hospital in a 2 week period. To me, that is a lot. That shows how much we need to be donating. *I am in no way telling people to give blood nor am I trying to be pushy! 

I booked to go with my mum as I had had bad experiences with collapsing & fitting whilst I was ill once. So I didn’t want to go alone. We made sure we had a good lunch beforehand & drank plenty as we were advised. We did go to prezzo… 🙄😂 

Anywho, when we got there we had quite a long wait & I started to get a little bit nervous as you can literally see everyone giving. This obviously might be different wherever you go. I was watching people fidgeting away & it made me feel even worse. I thought they must be so uncomfortable & fed up. Does it really take that long?! 

It was my turn after a 45 minute wait… They asked me a lot of questions before & made sure my iron levels were fine. This is a little finger prick & I’m not lying… That was the most painful part 🙈  haha! They made sure I was comfy & explained everything. I ended up sitting next to my mum so we decided to make it a race… She had already started before me! They said that you should tense your bum cheeks, cross your legs & kick them about. Also to keep moving your hand so the blood flows better! So those people weren’t uncomfortable…. 

It took my mum 8 minutes to give, & me, just 6. Wooohoo I won! Within a few days I had a text to say my sample was good & found out my blood type. Then another couple of days later I received a text to say where my blood had been donated to. 

I will definitely be doing this again. I promise you it is so much easier than you might think!  Have you ever given? 

Caitlin xo 💉