Then that's a VERY good reason to give blood.Originally Posted by Devil
I didn't learn much from my father before he died, but one thing has stuck with me. He said that he learned that if he was afraid of anything, the best way to tackle it was head on. Giving blood was one of the things he mentioned in relation to this - it took away his fear of needles. (Which was a very good thing, as he later became diabetic, and had a daily encounter with them.)
Fears tend to grow and become entrenched if you pander to them. TAckle them head on, and kill them.
The first time I gave blood was about 1983ish. I thought afterwards, "Hmmm.... that wasn't so bad!" And it wasn't.
Even though I ended up with a haematoma on my arm, explained by the nurse/technician who came up to me afterwards and said, "I'm really sorry about that - it was my first time!" She'd put the needle right through the vein.
So I thought, "If that's as bad as it gets, then pfffft!!"
I'm kinda disappointed I've never had the "geyser of blood" thing though...
I dunno how many donations I've given, as the records are lost, due to me giving blood about 30 times in Hamilton, a handful of times in Chch, then moving to Roundabouta (formerly known as "Tauranga"), and then to D'Auckland.
I'd have to be about as big a wuss as they get: I once had to leave the room during a first aid training course because the graphic descriptions of injuries were making me woozy! I dunno how many times I've fainted, and I go into shock very easily. For a few years, I had no problems at all with giving blood, but the pinprick for testing the haemoglobin levels had me on the verge of fainting.
Pathetic, I know, but now I find the whole process actually a pleasant one.
SO, if any of you big, tough bikers are reading this and thinking, "Nup - stuff that for a joke!", HTFU!
It's actually pretty much painless (or at least at the very low end of the pain spectrum), you'll be doing a very good thing, and you never know when you might need the blood yourself. That was one of the catalysts for me donating the first time - a ride in the back of an ambulance when I wrote off my first bike on Christmas Day, 1975. Afterwards I thought, "I should really do summat in return." It took a while, but I got there in the end. I also subscribe to St Johns (used the ambulance twice since then), and the Westpac Helicopter trust.
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I was waiting for a comment like this!
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