People in white coats

For the first time in my life today, I donated plasma. I first heard about donating plasma when chatting with an online friend, who was telling me about his plans to do this. While reading the newspaper last week, I saw an ad for donating plasma. It reminded me of the chat and I suddenly wondered, 'Why not?' So I called them up to talk about going in to donate some plasma. They told me that the day before I come in, drink LOTS of liquids and eat a good meal on the day of my donation. Since the first visit would take several hours since they'd have to also do a physical, I decided to do this on a Saturday, while my daughter is at her dad's for the weekend.

When I got there today, there were some scary people there. I don't mean "scary" as in how they looked but, I mean, one lady got mad because she was being denied her donation (she finally got it on her third try) and one guy, obviously one of those guys who thought he was "all that," made me wonder if he'd throw a fit if I looked at him or his girl wrong. (I pretty much avoided noticing either of them.) I kept sitting there asking myself, "Why am I here? Why am I here?"

But I soon had my answer. During my physical, which was performed by an EMT, I was told that the plasma I'm donating is going into over 800 medications -- used on burn victims. My face lit up. I knew why I wanted to do this now: I was giving back. I have ALWAYS made it a point to give back in whatever way possible to the medical world, to the Grossman Burn Center, to firefighters, and others who have survived being burned. And this was a new way for me to do that. This was something I could do to "give back" as well. Yes, I'm planning on doing a book for firefighters, but "giving back" is always going to be something important to me.

Unfortunately, my first experience didn't turn out so great. I got sick from dizziness twice. At one point, I even passed out! The EMT (who is ALSO a firefighter and her name is Michelle) was constantly appearing at the station I sat at to help and reassure me. The second time I got sick, she said, "Keep talking. Don't pass out on me again." Problem was, my mouth was all dry. The dizziness was pretty bad and sometimes I slumped in the seat. The strange thing was... when I passed out, I was AWARE that I had passed out. I mean, I heard myself saying "I'm not supposed to be here" before I came to. I had KNOWN I was not conscious.

But everybody there was SO caring and helpful. One guy sitting next to me talked about how HE had it hard on his first time, too (he'd done this 4 times so far) and after that it's not so bad. A staff member told me the first time usually is hard like this. Another guy who worked there held my hand and smiled reassuringly. It's weird but the sensation of him rubbing my hand with his thumb helped me to stay "focused" on being alert. (I think rubbing is one way they keep you conscious; I noticed a nurse rubbing my forehead after I came to.) But by the second time, it was done and I started feeling lots better. Michelle brought me a bag of mini cookies and juice during that episode and that also helped. I finished it off after the donation was over.

Despite that experience, I'm still happy that I made the donation. What I think went wrong was too much time had passed between my eating a large meal and donating the plasma. It was about 5 hours, I think. I'd eaten a small bag of chips before the procedure, but that wasn't enough. Michelle told me next time to bring extra snacks with me to eat and something to drink while waiting to be called in.

And, yeah, I'll be going back. I mean, this is a GOOD THING!! I wanted to grab everyone in there and tell them, "You're helping people like me!" I've seen so many other burn survivors in the times I've been hospitalized. Some children suffered burns far worse than me (like Yulce http://childburn.org/ ). So of course I'm happy to be doing SOMETHING that benefits all of them. Something that is some small way to give back for all that the firefighters out there and the doctors have done for me.