it’s been a day already

and I’m tired.

I got up early made Puppy breakfast and ran down to SJ. I had a meeting this morning. It took longer than it should have, but still not that long. It went well–the guy I was talking to is very cool. I had lunch with my sister, it went well. I wandered back to campus and gave blood. This is a deal. I haven’t done it in six years because the last time I did it was horrible and I went into shock. This time I’m just woozy and tired and my tummy hurts. I have talked to my cable company and figured out how to cancel service. I dealt with my stupid cell phone company. I went through a bunch of paperwork last night.

Now I’m going to go sit and write a paper for tomorrow.

I feel so productive and useful. I wish my head felt better now… 🙁

12 thoughts on “it’s been a day already

  1. tenacious_snail

    none of my business really, and not that I support the Red Cross guidelines, but aren’t you prohibitted from giving blood? (having had sex with a man who has sex with men).

    Reply
    1. Krissy Gibbs Post author

      For whatever reason, they let me. I told them that I have had two HIV tests since the last time I had sex with a man who has had PiA with a man and they let me.

      I thought it was interesting, but hey–maybe the people who are working the blood donation drive have decided that they don’t like the rules?

      Reply
      1. fyfer

        Fascinating… Was this through the Red Cross or some other group? (The rules are FDA, so they should apply to all blood drives, though.)

        Reply
        1. Krissy Gibbs Post author

          It was Red Cross. It has been suggested to me else-net that they will sometimes take the blood fully intending to toss it without even thinking of using it.

          Reply
          1. fyfer

            I was wondering about that. Some of my mostly-monogamous friends use blood donation as their routine STD testing, after getting an initial test elsewhere. I’d really rather not get into a debate about how questionable that practice is, but if it’s true that the Red Cross throws out some blood before it even gets to the testing stage, that’s important to know.

          2. genderfur

            Hey, maybe I can donate blood finally! I’ve been barred from it for a couple of decades now.

            I know for a fact that you can *ask* the Red Cross to toss your blood if you’re in a situation where things could be awkward. Like, say, if a group of co-workers is going together to donate, and one of them doesn’t feel like disclosing their hiv or hepatitis status to the group, so they “go along with the gang”.

    2. princeofwands

      FYI – while that used to be a permanent disqualification, it’s only recently been downgraded to a 5-year deferment and in the last couple of years down to only a 12-month constraint.

      And, as has said elsewhere in this thread – I hear frequently of nth hand accounts where they take the blood from someone that isn’t eligible to donate presumably only to throw it away (or perhaps blind validate safety screenings? filter plasma? dunno).

      Reply
      1. yanijc

        Well, the HIV tests have gotten better on the incubation time needed before detection – it used to be 6 mos back when I was in High School, I think it’s now down to three weeks.

        Reply

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