McCarron's Piece O' Mind

I always give blood whenever they come to our office. I like to give blood because I have an universal blood type, O-positive. So I went down and gave blood, nothing out of the ordinary there. I came back to my desk and about ten minutes later went to warm up my lunch.

Well I guess while I was away from my desk, a woman working with the Red Cross called my desk and left me a voice mail. I didn't notice when I got back from the microwave and started to eat my lunch. A few bites into my chicken breast she stopped by my desk saying she was the one who called earlier and the Red Cross needs me back downstairs because they had a few questions for me about my donation.

This confused me because I had no idea why they'd want to see me again, this is out of the ordinary. So I finished up my lunch really quick, and not two minutes later I received another phone call from another woman working with the Red Cross. So what's the first thing you think of when this happens? All the horrible thoughts went through my mind as I went downstairs. All the possible things that could be wrong with me went through my head, like could it have been a dirty needle contamination, or worse??

Well I get down there, they take me behind a table with a privacy wall and tell me that they forgot a question on the initial questionnaire form that you are supposed to do with a nurse before giving blood. I was so relieved that it was nothing serious, but it gave me a real scare.

The question they forgot to ask was, "Are you currently taking a medication for any infection?" Which is an easy answer of no for all you nosey parkers out there.


On the note of blood donations, I finally got sick and tired of LifeSource, or as I now call them VampireSource, calling me once every few days to give blood again. I will now only donate with the Red Cross because they are much more professional and don't hassle me over and over. The last call I got was a day after another call in which I told the operator that I was already scheduled. Their excuse for always calling us? "Well you wont donate any other way?" Really? I am pretty sure every time I've donated in the past had to do with me going out of my own free will like today when I saw the sign posted. No one had to telemarket me to pressure me into giving my blood, if they did anything they just drove away me from ever giving to them again.