Seeing Red

Last month I donated blood for the first time, something which I never thought I would be able to do for a number of reasons. I think I inherited my mum's feeling about needles (!) and developed a preference to being horizontal whenever having a blood test. However, after spending some time in and out of hospital in 2012, I had surrendered myself to endless tests and needles in a variety (ahem) of places. For some reason it never occurred to me to give blood. After talking about emergency end of life measures and organ donation with Robbie, I decided that blood donation was something I could see myself doing. At this time in my life I can't see myself registering to be an organ donor due to certain beliefs I have about what happens when we die. Perhaps these views will change with time and if I ever know someone requiring a new organ at some point in my lifetime. An unfortunate aspect of depression is that I spend most of my days feeling rather useless. I experience my symptoms to the degree that some days I'm terrified of leaving the house, the thought of filling out forms for a job or even volunteer work bring me out in a sweat and if my phone starts ringing I have to push it away from me and hide. Its quite difficult to find your purpose in life when most aspects of life bring you out in hives. The thought of becoming a blood donor made me feel useful, its something that if planned in advance I can make myself get up and out of the house for. I'm not saying I've found my purpose in life in the form of a full time blood donor (!), that's just not practical, I need some blood to fill my face up with.

When registering to become a blood donor I was suddenly struck with the panic that perhaps I couldn't help people in this way. There are still some ridiculous ideas surrounding mental illness, some people back away when they realise you have one, its not contagious! I found myself questioning whether depression affected the blood, could my illness be passed on in that way?! Obviously not, but I was having a crisis of confidence at the time. I couldn't bare the thought of giving someone this horrendous illness when they're either already unwell and in need of a blood transfusion, or unknowingly receive blood after being in a traumatic accident. It is worth baring in mind that if you have a mental illness or any illness that might require medication, you should inform someone on the donation team if you experience any side effects from taking the medications to control your condition. It is possible that these side effects could be passed on through the blood.

Overall my first time giving blood was really positive. Its very easy to register, you can make an appointment online to give blood at a local session. These sessions run fairly regularly and you shouldn't have to travel to far out of your way to donate. The give blood website provides loads of information on what to expect including a video of what to expect when you go to donate. The video in particular helped me to attend my session as I was fully prepared and roughly knew what to expect in terms of questions with a nurse, a small pin prick in the thumb for an iron test and an example of what it looks like when sitting down to give blood. They are fully aware that donors have fitted their session into their busy days, so they aim to get you into the donation chair within 20 minutes of you signing in. Obviously certain times may be busy when sessions have walk in donors as well as those with appointments. There may also be a longer wait if someone has trouble giving blood or if the world starts to go sideways when they move you up from the horizontal position to sitting upright, i.e. ME! If the latter happens to you, don't worry at all, just be honest with the nurse and they will tip you upside down like a bat and may even tend to you with a nice sweet drink and a straw! Most people have no problems donating, but I did see a few people with their feet in the air when I walked in for my appointment! You can find out everything you need to know about donating and registering to donate blood in the UK here. It is a very worthwhile and easy thing to do. It's easy to forget where blood comes from in an emergency, there isn't an endless store of it somewhere. Blood donation doesn't discriminate against gender, ethnicity, age, religion or sexual orientation and preference, at some point in our lives it's possible that we or someone we love could need a transfusion, you could well have the rare blood type needed in an emergency situation. It's a really worthwhile thing to do, plus you get stickers to declare to the world "I'm a badass, I donated blood today"...OK perhaps that's my suggestion for a sticker, but they did have one saying "be kind to me, I donated blood today". Perhaps I could start a range of stickers and badges for people with anxiety and depression...