Donating Plasma..

This past Saturday i had the opportunity to donate plasma. The Plasma Center is down on Center Street, so it's a nice twenty minute walk from my apartment since the weather has been amazing! In order to give plasma you have to have a physical, a drug test, and prove you are who you say you are. My physical was interesting. The guy interviewing me was asking the usual blood test questions.. "Do you have any tattoos? -no. Are you sick? -no. Do you have any piercings? -no. Earrings? -nope. Wow. -yep. No really, that’s unusual. -yeah, i guess so." Haha. He had the funniest look on his face as we had that conversation. He then tested my patellar tendon reflex. This is when he officially decided i was some abnormal alien. Both knees didn't budge at all. He tried again and again and then had me hold my hands and pull them apart as he did it. That got a good reflex from my right knee, but my left knee barely budged. It must be from all the falling. That poor tendon is completely stretched out.
Donating plasma was another story altogether. As the Physicians Substitute was inserting the needle, my blood squirted all the way up my arm. Gross. He finished taping the needle down and by the time he got to cleaning my arm, the blood just smeared and dried, so it looked like my whole arm was this disgusting reddish brown color. The process of plasmapheresis, during which a machine spins the collected product to separate the liquid from the blood cells, took about an hour. It felt weird to have my blood taken, messed with, and then put back into me. I was disappointed it didn't feel cooler when returned to my arm. I will always wonder what having cool liquid feels like running through your veins. Nevertheless, I couldn’t get any homework done because I couldn’t concentrate. Why?? I lost complete sensation in my right thumb, index, and middle finger and half of the sensation on my right ring finger. My whole arm was also aching pretty bad.
After all was said and done, though, I emerged $30 richer. That night I watched Step Up and ate banana bread and lots of chocolaty goodies. A good day all in all- after having a ward breakfast, going to the temple, donating plasma, and watching a movie. This blog is my first official story out of the millions I’m living through each day. And now I sign off. Goodbye from a regular college student trying to live a regular life and writing a not so regular blog.