I gave blood today...

[Monorail Cat]

So, I gave blood for the first time today.  The people were doing it in our school library.  It went as well as I had expected; it didn't hurt, and I didn't feel bad while it was happening.

Then I finished.

I got out of the medical chair and immediately felt weird.  I was expecting to be dizzy, but I was not dizzy at all.  Instead, I felt just... weird.  Like, an out-of-body sort of weird.  I was about to walk out of the room when someone told me to come back and sit down, that I needed to have juice and cookies.  So, I laughed, apologized, and headed over to the seats where the treats were.

All this time, I had the feeling of knowing what I was doing (I was fully conscious), but I didn't think straight.  I sat down, and I felt too weak to open the cookie bag, so I asked my friend to do it for me.  At that instant, I felt a throb of painful headache, but it left quickly.  I thought it was nothing, until my friend gave me a worried look and asked "You OK?"  The last thing I definitely remember was staring past her, and I was getting tunnel vision.  My dad is a pilot, so he's told me how you try to get blood back into your head when that happens.  I tried, but it was futile.  I think I might have mumbled something along the lines of "tunnel vision" as I went out. . .

The next thing I know, I wake up, rolling off of the chair and onto the ground.  I immediately tasted a strange taste that I had never before experienced.  I felt like I must have bit my cheek, tongue, or chomped down on my teeth, but something felt strange.  It was too early after regaining consciousness for me to identify.  After I woke up, I was in a daze for what felt like a couple seconds.  It's almost what it's like when you see things in a dream:  my vision was pretty blurry and it felt like a dream-like state.

After thinking all of those things in less than 1 second, I realized I had passed out.  I smiled a bit, thinking "Woah, that was weird!  I don't feel like that very often..."  At first, I mostly felt embarrassed, because... I don't know.  I just felt embarrassed.  I'm laying on the ground, facing up when I finally see relatively clearly.  One of the nurses was propping my legs on a chair and putting ice packs on me.  She saw that I had regained consciousness, and asked something like "Hey, you with me?"  I said "Yeah!" in a joking sort-of tone.  She asked again, and I just started saying "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, really, I promise, I'm back, I fainted, didn't I?" 

I laid down for several minutes and then they sat me up and put me in a chair.  I was there for almost 3 minutes when I started to feel strange, so I told them to get ready, I was laying back down, just in case.  Thankfully, I didn't pass out again.  I had laid down just in time. 

My friends who were there told me about how they were scared to hell and how their hearts were beating too quickly.  One of my friends thought, because she and I are actors, and because I am rather sarcastic and joking, that I was messing with her.  Another person thought I was doing some sort of dance.  It was actually pretty weird, asking the girl what happened, and trying to match it with what I remembered.  My drama director found out somehow and came into the room and was pretty worried about me, because I had just gotten a large part in a one-act play competition piece.  I found out that I was the second one to pass out today. 

I decided to not drive home, so I called my mom to come and get me.  A couple hours after getting home, I felt normal-ish, so I decided to go to the rehearsal tonight.  From there, I just went to my car, still there from this morning, and drove it home.  I didn't have a problem, although as I type this, I find it kinda hard to focus onto the text.  It's a tad blurry.  But yeah, I'm fine.  Just thought I'd share my eventful day.



tl;dr    I gave blood and passed out afterwards.

Has anyone else (from RND) ever passed out after giving blood?

[coolzeldad]

From what I know it is still pretty common.

Some people even pass out just from simple vaccinations, mainly because of stress.

I have felt that disconnect before, where it seems like you exist but your body has another idea.

[saivon]

I hope this does not sound rude but how much do you weigh? just out of curiosity because I know it is still possible for people to pass out because of how much they weigh even if they are like 2 or 3 pounds over the limit too take blood
 

[Monorail Cat]

I'm about average:  195-200 lbs, 18 years old, 6'1".  It was my first time, so I was expecting pain/dizziness, but not passing out/seizure.  But I'm fine now, I never really did hurt.  Just scared the heck out of some people.  A couple factors may have contributed:  I was kinda tired yesterday.  Also, I started the day with mild allergies.  Someone said that they could possibly have taken a bit more blood than they should have.  I know nothing, but I'm perfectly fine now.