so my iron levels were 14.5! (in perspective, it has to be 12 to donate).
it's a wierd process, they take out an 1/8 of the total blood that they use, and spin out the plasma part of it, then they stop it and reverse the machine to put the red blood cells and the platelets back into the vein and take another 1/8 until it's all done. then they also put some saline solution, like half an iv bag into the vein to replace the lost plasma. very cool. :)
but i still had a bit of faintness going on afterwards, i don't exactly know why, it's suppose to be easier on your body then giving whole blood.
then in the evening, after bible study, i was biking to my brother's house to pick up some stuff and i came across this lady sitting on the bus stop bench with her head down on her knees. i stopped and asked her if she was okay. She said yes and then no, and she looked awful. I stopped and went over to her and asked her again if she was okay and she asked to use my phone. She called up some guy and told him she needed to be picked up. She gave me back my phone and explained that she had been jogging in her neighborhood and had suddenly felt very faint and nauseated. her ipod was playing very loudly with the ear buds out of her ears and she was acting all wobbly and her eyes rolling back in her head. i tried to keep her awake and concious, her skin was very cold and clammy. finally the guy showed up and came walking over, he appeared not very concerned about the situation. made me wonder if she was on drugs or something else was wrong that they didn't want to be known. she staggered off to the truck and they drove off.
wierdest thing that ever happened to me.
