Almost Giving Blood

So, one of the things on my list for June was to donate blood. About two weeks ago I started thinking hmmmm... do I just go to a Red Cross center? Do I find a blood drive? How do I find out where blood drives are being held? ... and then, an e-mail magically (not really) appeared in my inbox from Team In Training letting me know about a blood drive in my area that was being held yesterday. Perfect! So, I signed up for an appointment at 6:30 p.m. That would give Matt enough time to get home from work and stay with Andy while I went. Matt and I also decided to do a "date night in." So, I planned to pick up some take out on my way home and we would have a little date night right here (more on that later). I figured I'd be home no later than 8:00. I even made an effort to dress presentable and I brought my camera along to have the nurse take my picture for the blog! Well...

The Red Cross must just take appointments so that they can have some idea of how many people they will have at different times of the day, because when I got there, they were also accepting walk-ins, which I think is awesome, but just because you had an appointment didn't mean that you went ahead of walk-ins. So, I waited for about 40 minutes, but I didn't mind. It really was great that they had so many people to donate blood.

Then, I got called back and sat in a little cubicle with a nurse. She asked me a bunch of questions. She took my temperature, checked my blood pressure and pricked my finger to check my iron levels and make sure I was not anemic (I was not). I also watched a guy pass out (kinda scary!) and then wake up (sigh of relief). Then she left me to answer 50 questions on the computer. They were mostly questions about risky behavior and if I had lived in certain countries during certain dates and if I'd ever had any diseases. One of the questions was Are you pregnant or have you been pregnant in the past 6 weeks? So, I answered No. Because to my knowledge I'm not pregnant, and I know for sure I haven't been pregnant in the past 6 weeks! BUT... truth be told... this was the first month we started trying for baby #2. Since my brother is getting married in September and I'm in the wedding, I'm not exactly wanting to be pregnant by then, but given what it took to get pregnant with Andy, my doctor said to try for 3 months and if nothing, uh, happens, then try a round of Clomid. SOOOO.... I am of course assuming nothing will happen, so we can get 4 rounds of trying in before the wedding and then do whatever we have to do after that.

But, of course, there is always that chance... so I asked the nurse What are the repercussions to giving blood if you are pregnant? She asked me if there was even a chance I was pregnant and I told her, well, I guess there could be a chance, but it would be nothing short of a miracle if after trying to conceive for two years and needing a round of fertility drugs we just got PREGNANT on the first try! (I mean, I can't even fathom that!!). So, she called over the head nurse and they said Absolutely not! She said that since your body starts increasing it's blood volume to support the baby, the last thing you want to do is take blood away. I pointed out that I hadn't even missed my period yet... I was still a few days away... and she told me to get my period and then come back... So...

I'm moving Donate Blood to the July list (unless of course I know ahead of time that I won't be eligible to give blood (wink wink nod nod) I guess time will tell) and replacing it with returning an un-used work shirt to my old place of employment.

So, this post is already super long, but I just wanted to say that I loved having "date night in!" It was really nice! Matt and I were able to talk about things we probably wouldn't have talked about in a restaurant. We didn't pay for drinks or pay tip, so it was cheaper. We didn't have to worry about who would watch Andy... mostly, it was just nice to set aside time for ourselves instead of being busy working on different things around the house at night, or one of us on the computer and the other watching TV, etc. After dinner we watched a movie. It was nice and relaxing and something I want to start incorporating into every week! I highly recommend it!