Giving Blood

I went yesterday to be a good citizen and give blood. Let me just say I have a VERY high tolerance for pain and I'm not grossed out at all by blood. In previous surgeries I have even requested to stay awake and watch the procedure. So all was well while I was giving blood yesterday.

Until I got to the snack station.

I knew I should probably eat and drink so I had some pretzels and diet Pepsi (gross). As I sit there watching a rerun of Desperate Housewives, I start to get hot and weak. I wanted to raise my hand to call someone over, but I couldn't move. At some point I guess I closed my eyes and the next thing I knew, I was laying on the ground with 5 Red Cross ladies hovering over me. They were asking me my name, which thankfully I knew, and telling me to cough really hard. Somehow I had been put into a wheelchair and they took me back to a bed to lie down.

After some regular Pepsi (still gross - I'm a coke girl) I started to feel better. The ice pack on my neck helped too. After about 10 mins. I was able to get up and drive home. I wasn't feeling completely better by that time, but it was closing time and I knew they all wanted to get home. So the whole way home I continued to make myself cough (it apparently gets the blood flowing in your head) to avoid passing out again. I made it home safely but felt like crap the rest of the day. I still feel tired today, but I'm hoping that is because it is an ugly day and not because of my debacle yesterday.

The Red Cross ladies kept telling me that this happens a lot to first-timers and that it probably won't happen again. I really want to give blood often, but I don't want this to happen every time. I guess we'll just have to see next time I go!

What are you experiences?