Blood pain

Usually when I give blood it is a painless event. Today was different. Quite different.

It was a new crew on the blood bus (hmm... Blood Bus... sounds like a metal song). The one technician who usually does a good job getting the needle in the vein wasn't there. But the girl that was assigned to me seemed competent.

I warned her it can be tricky finding the vein. She took her time before making the spot and diving in. The initial prick was discomforting. The digging around was painful. When she said she was under the skin but not in the vein I became a bit concerned. Even more so when she invited another lady over to help her out.

That is when I noticed the small lump on my arm. The blood has begun to pool under the skin. That has never happened before. It made me wonder if they would squeeze that out. Sadly they did not.

They finally did get the blood flowing into the bag. But it wouldn't continue. They kept playing with the tube and checking how much was collecting. At one point they decided to call it quits. She commented that they can only go for 15 minutes before they have to stop. She said they didn't collect the full bag. "only 300 of 500". Not sure what the measurement is but I am guessing milliliters.

It wasn't the most painful attempt at giving blood. There was another time a couple years back where they kept inserting the needle, banging it around my arm like a drunk giving it to a hooker. They finally switched arms that day before collecting blood.

I wonder if the ibuprofen I had taken early in the day had anything to do with it. Been popping those pills to help with my toe. Either the ibuprofen is dulling the pain or my toe is getting better. It will be interesting to see how it feels tomorrow morning.

My main concern about the toe is relapse. As in I intend to go to Summerfest tomorrow and drink some beer. I don't want to be in pain the next day. I hope that it goes away and doesn't bother me for another year. If not I may be limping my way around Summerfest. Worst yet, I may not drink this weekend.