Wednesday, February 7, 2007

What Drives You?

I was excited since a few days ago. What drives me? Blood donation programme. This time, with organ donation programme. It was organised by some first year students as a group project for a subject.

What made me all excited? I donated for the second time! What's so special about it, you say? Well, those who know me well will understand why.

I had tried some few times to donate my blood before. Since I was 18. So many incidents happened, I couldn't donate my blood.

The first one was in Pre-U College. I was all excited to donate, I counted the days every day. But somehow I was unlucky. I forgot about it when the day came. I went out, and was too tired to walk to the designated place (the Mobile Unit came to the College).

My second attempt was when I was here, the place I'm studying in currently. I failed the preliminary stage. I was rejected because My blood pressure was low. I didn't have enough sleep the night before. The worse part was when the doctor asked me weird questions, presuming I was having hallucinations or something, that prevented me from sleeping. Precious words of the day:

Are you sure you're not seeing things, hearing things? A normal teenager like you should be able to sleep, and should sleep for eight hours per night.

Note: He was stressing the things.

That was my starting point of lying about my sleep. I hardly get enough sleep per day every day (the minimum hour was five, I didn't know until today, but yeah, I usually sleep less than that).

Anyway, I failed the next few attempts with various reasons. Low blood pressure, low iron, low sugar, low everything. High body temperature (I was fine, I swear!) Arghh!!!

I tried hard lying about my condition. I drink hot choc or cereal drinks in the morning, eat meat and liver at lunch an hour before testing the blood, a nap so I appear to be fresh... One lie at a time. But I'll fail for the other reasons.

Every time I failed to donate, I grumbled whenever I walk past the posters. And grumbled att the radio ads calling for the public to donate blood. Yeah, I am like that. I often say "They ask people who don't want to donate to donate, but they refused the people who really wants to donate (me)."

I was finally able to donate on March 06. Last year. Finally, my own Little Red Book! Yay! (^_^) I wasn't afraid of the needle. I just hoped I didn't passed out. Hehe... I didn't. Some snacks afterwards: chocolate wafers, candies, cake, fruit juice, boiled egg.

Today I went to the venue where the event took place. The people were taking a break, so I waited for an hour or so. I realised my body temperature had raised, my nose and throat were dry, I felt like coughing. Uh-oh... Please don't tell me I just caught a fever.

I waited for my turn. I passed the first stage. My iron level was sufficient. Then the second stage. My blood pressure was OK. Then the next counter, where the guy in-charge put some stickers in my LRB, and some barcode stickers to label my blood later. I even got a key-chain this time!

A few while later I was lying on the bed. Pressure was applied on my right arm. Then, a big needle pierced my skin. I didn't see how it went into my vein. Blood flowing out of the tube attached to the needle. A few moments later the bag was full with my blood. The needle going in didn't hurt much, it was when it was taken out that I felt a little pain. I suddenly remembered a scene where someone (a girl, if I remembered well) donated her blood, everything went smoothly until when the bag was full. Somehow the blood was contaminated. A fault while handling the bag, I guess. The whole bag was wasted. I took a quick look at my arm. The needle was taken out. The officer asked me to apply some pressure on that tiny wound.

I lay still for some few minutes. The blood stopped, an officer put a plaster on it, and I headed out of the building. Wait. Somebody stopped me, asking me to get some treat in another room. A slice of choc cake and a hard-boiled egg. I skipped the drink.

I went out and asked for the certificate (yup, this time every donor gets a certificate). I sat down at the registration counter. A green card caught my attention. It was the organ donation form. I asked for a pen and filled out the form. People at the counter (my classmates for Calculus) asked me if I had discussed the matter with my family. Nope. My family didn't know a thing about it. It was a 'right here, right now' thing.

An info one of them revealed: our Calculus lecturer was the first to submit the form. Maybe it has something to do with his health condition. Hmm...

Anyway, the funny part while filling the form was the guy at the counter was shocked when I ticked 'All' (all organs for donation) and started to imagine being skinless. Yup, skin is an organ, and is listed in the form. We, the girls, just laughed. We explained to him, donating the skin doesn't make anyone completely skinless. Only some parts will be taken - e.g. the skin from the butt.

I walked to the Cafe with some friends. I couldn't imagine when people started to think how to bury me when I am dead, as all the organs are taken out, the insides, the bones, the skin and the eyes. Haha... It was funny somehow. But it wasn't in a way. This kind of perception is what preventing conservative-minded people from donating.

Here's what everybody should know about organ donation. Correct me if I'm wrong.
  1. Not every organ listed to be donated will be healthy enough by the time you're dead.
  2. Not all organs will be taken out at that one time, leaving you organless.
  3. Not every organ will have suitable receiver when you're dead, so they don't need to take all organ out. Usually they have a waiting list for organ receiver. If none is compatible with your organ, you get to keep it.
  4. If your organ is dead or damaged and nothing could be done with it, they won't take it. What's the point of keeping a dead organ anyway?
  5. You will still keep most of your skin.
  6. Organs are not like plastic. The people keep it cold so it rot slower, not completely not rot. If there is no receiver in the waiting list, then they won't keep the organ.
So here I am, babbling about organ donation. This is not the only thing happening today. A hand-on test at 8.30 p.m. I'm going to take a nap. Zzz...

1 comment:

admin said...

mesti seram je nanti owang nak kebumikan kau nanti.wakakakaka. seb baek dia tak amik semua organ serentak.he he he