Yesterday, it was time for the bimonthly blood donation drive at work. Usually, my hemoglobin is well above the 12.5 gm/dl limit required to be eligible for donation. When the nurse tested it yesterday, it was 12. Upon retest, it was 11.4. So, she brought her supervisor to repeat the test and then, it came out to be 14.4 gm/dl which is in the normal range for me. Don’t know if it was the inexperience of the first nurse or some glitch with the machine that were responsible those lower readings. After several pokes for the hemoglobin test and registration, I had to wait awhile before they could put the big needle into me. During this time, one woman fainted on the bed half way through her donation. Another man finished his donation with a big bruise developing at the puncture site. Watching all this drama, I was getting skeptical about the donation, but fortunately there were no problems for me. I was done in 5 minutes.

This will be my first and last donation of 2008. After my India trip next week, American Red Cross will not take my blood for one year. In the 1990’s this deferral period used to be a six months but, later increased to one year.