donating blood OK, consuming fruit drink, not so much

[lauradi7dw]

I think the last time I donated blood was in 1986, or thereabouts. At some point the Red Cross decided that anybody who had spent a certain amount of time in England was a risk to the blood supply due to Mad Cow (exceptions not made for vegetarians) so I was turned down a couple of times and gave up. On a whim, I dropped by the blood drive at school today and learned that the current rule for exclusion is > 3 months (cumulatively) spent in the UK between 1980 and 1996. I counted on my fingers and came up with less than that, so they took my blood. I was distressed to realize that I had forgotten completely the healthy levels of hemoglobin in the blood, which I had to memorize at some point in the past couple of years, but fortunately the nurse (or the diagnostic machine) remembered. 13.9 g/dL is healthy for a female adult. I felt fine after all that blood dripped out, but the choices for "juice" were all corn syrupy drinks with some juice in them. I picked the cranberry drink because it was the only one without artificial colors added. It would have been better to stick with water. I don't know when I last drank a commercial juice drink, but this one upset my stomach. Also, the bandage that they said had to stay on for five hours fell off in about five minutes, but the bandage police did not follow me to class.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Perhaps the Red Cross anticipates the development of Mad Tofu Disease?

~Amy