Left work a little early to go donate blood yesterday. I did the RapidPass beforehand – which was their term for the medical history portion, not some device that I could strap to myself that would drain out my blood as I walked through an arch in the library.
Though… no, that’s a terrible idea.
So, I was ahead of the game when I got there and breezed right on through the health screening with no delay. Then – no waiting – right on over to the table for the donation.
Needle stick, squeeze every 5-7 seconds, and I was on my way.
And then I was done. I mean, it seemed to go really fast – much more so than usual. I commented to the technician and she said I finished up the donation in 6 minutes and 30 seconds.
The average time, I found out later, is around 8-10 minutes.
So, wow.
I felt fine, got my cookie and juice, and was on the road. I think that might have been the most efficient blood donation I’ve ever done.
Given that the human body has about 1.5 gallons of blood and this is around 12 pints, at that rate I could have auto-exsanguinated myself in 78 minutes. Provided, of course, that I didn’t die first.
Cool, and also creepy.