A Pint For a Pint

The other day we (me, my parents, sister and kids) went out to Bruester's for ice cream after an afternoon spent at the park. There is nothing like ice cream on a hot day. When we got there we saw that they were doing their "Pint for a pint" blood drive with the Red Cross. You give a pint of blood, you get a pint of ice cream. Now, I'll do just about anything for ice cream, including giving blood. I used to give blood often when I was younger, and I had a tendency to pass out afterwards. But I figured that since I weigh about 30 pounds more than I used to and I'd just upped my blood sugar by a 1000% by eating a peanut butter cup sundae, I was probably good. So my dad and I decided to give it a go and donate some blood.

During the screening process, they ask you all kinds of weird questions like, "have you ever had a brain covering transplant?". Seriously, has anyone ever actually answered "yes" to that question? Then she entered my social security number into the blood computer and said, "oh, you were born in California, you last gave blood in September of 2000 and you're O positive?" Ummm...okay. That's not creepy or anything.

So after the screening and testing of my blood for anemia, I was pronounced a good candidate and they hooked me up. I filled up the little bag with blood and got a nice hot pink bandage on my arm to show for it. I sat up slowly and I felt fine, so I got up and made my way to the front of the blood mobile for some cookies and juice. And that's when it happened. Yep, I went down. Apparently I turned completely white and the nurses came to my rescue and laid me back down on the bed. I was clammy, I thought I was going to throw up and they were laying ice cold rags on my neck and forehead. It was not a pretty sight.

I did survive though. I finally was able to sit up and graduated to walking around about 20 minutes later and was able to drive myself to my parent's house where my mom was waiting with the boys. All this for some free ice cream. Although...it was Oreo.... :-)