This is a goal for ’101 Things in 1001 Days’.
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BACKGROUND
I’ve wanted to give blood for a long time but until early 2008 I was on medication that prevented me from doing so. There’s always a need for donors and I want to be someone who gives regularly. I’m fit, healthy and type O, the ‘universal donor’, so it seems silly not to do it. A few minutes discomfort to potentially save someone’s life? No contest. So when in December I decided to sign up for the 101 Things challenge I knew straight away that the first item on my list would be to give blood.

PROGRESS
I arrived at the blood bank, not far from Liverpool town hall, 16/12/08. Before my start date. Would have loved to be giving blood for the first time during the period of 1001 Days, but I hadn’t finished my list and I didn’t want to wait, so the 101 Things goal itself will be to simply give blood.

I spoke with a nurse, read through a folder and filled in somes forms, talking all the while about why I wanted to give blood and how I was going to persuade my whole family to do it and asking if they were busier at Christmas than at other times of year due to people wanting to do good deeds and such. Apparently not, and in general they’re never busy enough. I then sat down with a different nurse who went through my forms with me – deciding that the operation I’d had as a child to remove my adenoids was acceptable – and shaking her head at the coverage of the Rhys Jones murder trial that was showing on one of their televisions.

All fine and dandy on the administration front then, but when this second nurse began to look for a vein she couldn’t find one that was suitable, so the second nurse called in the first nurse for a second opinion. They both agreed that one arm was okay to take a sample from but that neither arm had veins that were visible enough for them to feel comfortable about slotting in the donation needle. They would not, in the words of the first nurse, “ever go stabbing around looking for a vein”. Was it because my arms were too weedy or skinny, I wanted to know. Funnily enough another first time donor had asked a similar question that morning, only he had wanted to know if his arms were too fat. Neither having ‘skinny’ arms nor ‘fat’ ones had anything to do with it, I was assured. It was just my physiology. Nevertheless I apologised for my skinny arms, and they apologised for my having gone through the paperwork for nothing, and I apologised again, because I really was genuinely sorry.

Could more exercise help? Were there any specific moves I could try to encourage the veins to the surface? The second nurse said that some people think so but looked and sounded doubtful. Was there anywhere else on the body I could donate from, perhaps at a hospital? The second nurse shook her head no, though I think now that surely behind one of my knees there must be thicker veins, chunkier highways in which the chunkier donation needle could sit. Perhaps you can donate at hospitals and the nurse had forgotten or had never known or had chosen not to tell me. Perhaps there are slimmer donation needles in existence but not at this donation centre or in this city or as part of the NHS.

Come back in two years, the second nurse said. Some people come in a couple of years after having been told their veins were too thin or too well hidden and find that they’ve grown or popped out. People change, it sounds strange, but veins can pop up.

Despite this set back, it’s staying on the list. I won’t wait two years. I’ll try again in a few months. And in the meantime I’ll exercise my skinny arms.

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EDIT: 28/04/09
Now back on track with this! Routine blood test nurse informed me that the line I’d gotten from the drop-in centre was a load of bollocks, wooh! So arranging to give blood asap.