A+

That's my blood type. I went to give a pint on Friday.  Just happened to be up on the Veteran's Parkway side of town. And since it was such an off-hand, spontaneous kind of thing, I was surprised that they actually were willing to take it. I had been by the Collection site a week ago, and did all the usual preparation for donating a pint well in advance: taking multi-vitamins, plus extra iron supplements. It's usually so far down on the chart for their minimum number on hemoglobin when they take a drop and test, it's not worth a trip to the north side of town unless I have been doubling up on extra iron or eating Wendy-burgers. I haven't been to Wendy's in weeks, and had only the usual multivitamins, so didn't really expect the staff at the ARC would find me a suitable prospect for draining.

When I went last week, I was blatantly truthful. Voluntarily confessing the immunizations I finished in early June. I had called the donor site specifically to ask how long I should wait before my next attempt: thirty days after the last injection. And told the staffer, when she was checking all my vitals, about being S.O.T.B. for a week - but don't think that really had any effect on my being rejected. (Or maybe it did, as I don't think she told me what my unacceptable number was when she tested for hemoglobin). There was no 'truth-telling' yesterday. I just went in and let them poke my finger to test for iron levels and surprisingly, was well over the minimum.

I get pretty annoyed when they get so picky about counting corpuscles, when they are all the time advertising about how desperate they are for donors, and forever calling me to ask if I have any extra I could contribute to their worthy-ness. I try to go every time it is 'time', which is about every two months. So think their score keepers cannot count very well, for them to be calling me asking for a pint when they would not accept it if I was to take it to them. I can sympathize with being mathematically impaired, but they have people who are paid to count, and keep up with stuff, so think they should be better at it than disabled Me.

If you get on their 'preferred donor' list and sign up to be a VIP, promise to donate five times a year, they will send you a hideous T-shirt as a Thank You gift. Which I took to Mexico and donated to the needier to wear and advertise that they are do-gooders for the American Red Cross.

I think there is a lot of iron to be found in chocolate. I need to build my blood supply back up right away....