Ever since I was a little, tiny kid, I have had the goal of donating blood. For some inexplicable reason, the idea draws me. I'm not scared of needles or blood, and I just want to.
As soon as I was 17 - finally old enough to donate - I signed up to do it in our high school blood drive. I talked about it all day, and was simply excited. Then they pricked my finger. Back then, they used old school technology to see if your blood had enough hemoglobin - best measured by iron content. Basically, they sucked my blood up into a little tube (micro-pipette) and dripped it into a special liquid. If it sunk, you were good - your blood was heavy enough = had enough iron. Mine floated. I was devastated. I went back to class, humiliated that I had talked it up. I cringed every time I saw someone with an arm band. Lucky.
Since then, I have tried 4 more times, sometimes waiting in line for hours, each time rejected. The latest was this Friday. I had them prick my finger first, aaaaand... fail. My iron levels were lower than they ever have been before. They even use nifty new technology that centrifuges your blood, or something like that that is pretty accurate. Lame. The computer didn't even register my iron level. The screen just said <10.5. :(
To make it worse, every time they try to make me eat the treats for the people that do donate and take a shirt saying "I donated", as if to mock me. Adding insult to injury (literally - those finger pricks bruise, and they double prick those that fail just make sure, mocking me again).
I am not defeated yet, American Red Cross! I will eat nails if I have to! Even if it takes 10 times!
(sulking in the corner, sniffing)
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