{"id":2252,"date":"2017-08-23T23:48:05","date_gmt":"2017-08-23T23:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/?p=2252"},"modified":"2017-08-23T23:48:05","modified_gmt":"2017-08-23T23:48:05","slug":"curiously-apprehensive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/23\/curiously-apprehensive\/","title":{"rendered":"Curiously apprehensive"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Red Cross has been hounding me for a bit to give blood again. \u00a0I hadn\u2019t gone for a while and so the phone calls began to increase in frequency as the emails became more strident.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, I fought with the app for a bit to schedule an appointment and then gave up and called. \u00a0And had to talk to a person. \u00a0Like some kind of damn Luddite. \u00a0Sigh.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was glad I had the appointment, though, since the donation center was standing room only. \u00a0Well, the waiting area, anyway. \u00a0They did let you recline for the actual donation.<\/span><\/p>\n

I had done the prescreening online and the blood pressure check and iron check when smoothly. They sent me over to the Double Red machine – or Power Red<\/em>, as they are now calling it – and I got settled in.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then\u2026 I dunno what it was, but I got crazy apprehensive. \u00a0Like, fight or flight apprehensive. \u00a0Which is weird – I\u2019ve give blood so many times it\u2019s best measured in gallons. \u00a0I\u2019m not scared of needles and I know the procedure and what to expect. \u00a0But, still, I wanted out of there. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I took some deep breathes and texted Jim for support and then it was time for the needle stick. I looked away and felt the \u201cpinch\u201d. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(It\u2019s not a pinch, dammit, and I wish they would quit calling it that.)<\/span><\/p>\n

And then we were off. \u00a0Squeeze every 5 seconds, eat some tums when the saline and plasma came back, and pretty soon I was done and off to get some cookies. <\/span><\/p>\n

And I was fine. \u00a0I don\u2019t know what set me off – might have been the too loud and frankly terrible music – but I was all fired up for nothing. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I stopped to get a \u201csecond dinner\u201d and then I was home. \u00a0No biggie. <\/span><\/p>\n

So, if you can, you should go give blood. \u00a0Doesn\u2019t take long, you get cookies and juice when you\u2019re done, and it saves people\u2019s lives. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Straight up super hero. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Red Cross has been hounding me for a bit to give blood again. \u00a0I hadn\u2019t gone for a while and so the phone calls began to increase in frequency as the emails became more strident. So, I fought with the app for a bit to schedule an appointment and then gave up and called. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2253,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252\/revisions\/2253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}