Have you ever thought about selling your plasma? I have. I've researched it many time before. It is always nice to have a little extra cash. However, usually my mom says no.. because either I am going out of the country soon, or I am just getting over being sick or something like that. She just wants me to be healthy...what a lady :) .
Well it happened again this summer. I thought about selling my plasma. Then I had a friend, Jordan, who was itchin for some cash flow and I said "you should sell your plasma" and he had thought about it before and so I think I just pushed the idea over the edge. So...it was real. He researched it again. We got all our paperwork in order. We found a time that we could set aside 3 hours (thats how long they tell you to allow for a first time donation). Awesome. It was going to happen. We were pumped. It was going to be an adventure for sure.
It was a Wednesday afternoon. We arrived at the donation place in the "hood" around 2:40. Signed in and waited. They put you through a lot of different "rounds." We were asked questions but multiple people in small rooms. Signed lots of papers. Answered questions on a touch screen thingy. Had our fingers pricked. Had our fingers blacklighted. The questions crack me up... "have you had your tooth #22 removed in the past 3 days?"... "have you left your neighborhood in the past 5 days?" "are you currently projectile vomiting?" "Have you talked to your birth father in the past 24 hours?...can we talk to him?" "Do you spend more than 6 hours a day on a couch made of leather from Bolivia?" ... OK so none of those were really questions but they felt like those questions. It was funny. Jordan and I made jokes about it.
There were 2 other guys there that Jordan knew from high school and they were a bit ahead of us in the process. One of the steps was called "the physical" haha. It seemed to take people an eternity. I was like what the heck are they running the pacer and doing the push up test? Anyways. 3.5 hours had passed. Jordan finally got to the physical stage and was turned down... Like was told he could not give today because he had has surgery in the past 6 months. He would have to get a form signed by his doctor. Could they have told him that on the website? Yes. Could they have told him that in any of the earlier stages? Yes. It was frustrating for both of us. At that point I was willing to get up and leave. I had bible study that night and was worried I would be late. I offered to leave but Jordan and I both decided that we had already waited this long..at least one of us should get a needle to the arm... and maybe make some $$$.
So, I pass the physical stage. They look between my toes to see if I have any needle marks there.. push on my tummy etc. I go to the bathroom...which I had been holding for 4+ hours incase they needed a urine sample (tmi? probably). Then I get to the back room where everyone is donating. I finally got a needle put in my arm and I was rockin. I was pumping my fist as fast as I could hoping that I would go faster. I felt bad because Jordan was now waiting for me... and would walk away with nothing from the long day. I get to what I think is like 2/3 of the way done. All of the sudden my chest starts to feel hot and tight and fuzzy. My head starts to cloud and everything starts to slow down. I raise my arm to get the attention of the guy who hooked me up. I maybe even make a sound but everything sounds weird and my own voice sounds insanely loud.
I wake up to people I dont know saying my name. I have an icepack on my chest and behind my neck. I am scared and totally confused. What the heck just happened??? They tell me I passed out. I am just trying to breath normally. I ask if I can be done giving my plasma now and they say yes but they are trying to return as much blood as they can. I text Jordan and tell him I passed out. He asks if I am ok and offers to drive home. My blood pressure when I woke up was 88/58. They started to put in a bag of saline. It was crazy cold. I was shaking. They didnt have any blankets. Eventually I sat up... and stabbed myself in the arm with the needle. Then they went and got Jordan. They had to see if I could stand etc. So that all took a while. They told me that I needed to eat a really good dinner and drink tons of water and that I should not drive. AWESOME. I was a mess.
We walked out of the building and I stated how much of an epic fail that whole process had been. I had missed bible study. I felt awful. Jordan had to drive. Jordan was walking away empty handed. It was just funny how much of a fail it was.
He was going to drive me home.. he called his mom and she insisted that we stop at their house and have dinner. So I got a good meal in my system and we got to tell the crazy story. Then a huge storm came. So I waited till that calmed down to leave. When I was driving home there was tons of lighting I was sure I would be hit by lightning that night..it was just how things were working.
All in all. I lost a little plasma. Made $50 and got a great story.
