Famous last words

Well, I didn't have a very good day at work on Thursday. It was the day of the quarterly blood drive and if you went and gave, you got this really cool St. Louis Cardinals shirt. And yes, I really wanted it. Now, the only time i've given blood was at the doctor's office, but I figured, nothing went wrong then, so whats the worst that could happen?

So I go down there and they make you answer a bunch of questions, many of them centered around have you ever gone to an African nation or been around someone from an African nation (if yes, leave now). Which is sad. They are losing an entire generation to the AIDS virus. But anyway, I answered no to everything but piercing (in my ears) and that was fine. So they prick your finger and put it in a vial to test for iron and that came back just as good also. So, I go over and sit in one of the chairs and wait for the nurse to come over and we could get started. So, she cleaned the area on my right arm with iodine, gave me a little heart ball to squeeze and put the needle in that was hooked up to a bag. Everything starts off fine and I'm just sitting there, when I start to feel a little light headed. So I just put my head back and closed my eyes. Only it got worse and I started to feel really reall naseaus. One of the nurses came over and asked if I was okay because I was pale and sweating and thats when it happened. I was able to cover my mouth in time for them to run over and get a trash can. And that started me sitting there in the chair repeatedly throwing up into a trash can while they put wet clothes over my face and neck. During all of this, I never even felt them take the needle out of my arm and bandage the area up. The throwing up lasted about 2 minutes and then I laid back down and they put more wet towels on me. And I laid there for quite a while.

It was sort of weird, that was an older guy that came over to me and kept patting me on the leg saying it would be okay. And all I could say back was I'm sorry over and over. But, there were only 2 other people there at that time (and they won't say anything) so at least it wasn't a room fool of people. I was finally able to make it to the area where they had food and downed a bottle of water, a chocolate chip cookie and a box of raisins. But, I wasn't feeling that much better. I had to go back up to work with my hair matted down and my shirt collar soaking wet. For the rest of the day, I felt so tired and completely drained. I was so tired in fact, that while I was driving home all I wanted to do was lay my head on my steering wheel and go to sleep. But, I made it home just fine and laid on the couch and watched TV and was asleep by 9pm.

This morning when I woke up, I felt like I had a hangover. But I had a bunch of water throughout the day and felt better. I was able to join my friends at dinner tonight at the St.Louis Gast House. A totally awesome German resturant and they are expanding into the next building and making it a German pub. And yes, I will be there. For dinner I had the Hühnerschnitzel with Kartoffelpuree and Gemüse. And for desert I had the Apfelstrudel. In review, I had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and apple strudel. All awesome.