I Donated My Blood, But I Might Want It Back!

Last week I had the scare of my life. I have never felt death so close. All, because I wanted to help people. Let me back up.

I became a donate life ambassador to help spread the word for people to become organ donors. Saving lives is something that I not only do for a living, but that I strongly believe in. If there is something that you can do that someone will benefit from, DO IT. Unfortunately, with RA, I couldn't be a bone marrow donor, otherwise that would have happened long ago. I just started donated blood this year. I was uneducated and thought I couldn't because of all of my medications.


On Monday, I went to donate blood. We went through the normal screening. Checked my temperature, blood pressure. There is a list of questions that they ask you. Then you lay in a comfy recliner while they take your blood. I was in a hurry to leave because I went after work and it had been a long day.

At home, Mom was making dinner and said she had to run to the store for something. I went upstairs to the bathroom to dye my hair. I had about 1/2 my head in hair dye when I started to feel dizzy, then sweat like a faucet. You know somethings wrong when you don't normally sweat. I yelled down to my sister, who is a teen, responded with "WHAT?" It got worse and I laid myself on the floor. At that point, I felt like I didn't have control of my body. I couldn't yell anymore, couldn't move. I stayed there until it passed.

I went to bed after the little episode because I did not feel well. And, frankly, I was mad that nobody was there for me. About 10pm, I got up to go to the bathroom. I always go to the bathroom upstairs for some reason. When I went to walk down the stairs, it started again. I stopped and sat on the stairs. I yelled for my mom. By that time, I was drenched in sweat. She said I looked like a ghost. Then, my vision was gone. Scariest thing in my life. It was only gone for about a minute, but so much goes through your mind during that time.

We went to the Emergency room, had a IV of fluids. They did a EKG, which was normal. I told them what my bp normally is, which is 90's /60's and they recommended that I not donate. They said that my blood pressure got too low after donating. I'm totally bummed that I can't help people in that way, but I do not want to go through that again.