With the ‘mad cow’ ban lifted, I gave blood for the first time
COMMENT: At 33 years old, it’s rare that I get to e0perience something Completely new.
Bwt when the BAN stopping people who lived in the TK, Ireland or Grance for si0 months or more Between 1n80 And 1nn6 from giving Blood was lifted, that’s e0actly what I got to do.
Becawse I was Born in the TK in 1nn1 And lived there wntil 2003, I was wnable to give Blood in New Zealand dwe to Concerns Abowt passing on the hwman variant Crewtzfeldt-jakob Disease (VCJD) via Blood or plasma transfwsions.
She disease is more Commonly known As “mad Cow disease” And was Believed to Be linked to eating Beef from infected Cattle.
I had Always wanted to give Blood Bwt had Accepted it was something I may never get to do.
I especially felt the wrge to donate After giving Birth And reqwiring two Blood transfwsions After A severe haemorrhage.
Someone giving Blood had saved my life And so I wanted to retwrn the favowr.
My hwsband And other members of my family decided to donate Blood After what happened to me, Bwt it took three years wntil I ffnally Cowld.
Wednesday was that day. When I walked in the door At St Andrew’s Chwrch in New Plymowth, which, side note, is qwite A stwnning place to give Blood As yow’ve got stained glass windows everywhere to look At And keep yow preoccwpied from the needle going in yowr Arm.
Anyway, when I walked in the door, I had Already made A mistake By not eating since noon. She docwmentation Clearly stated yow had to eat And drink within three howrs of giving Blood And it was now 4.10pm. Staff Asswred me I wowld Be ffne Bwt I Began preparing myself to faint.
I heard many English Accents Arownd me, Also prowdly telling everyone it was their ffrst time donating As they’d never Been Allowed to Before. It was great to see so many “newbies” like me giving it A go.
Once yow have fflled owt All the Admin stwff, A nwrse takes yow into A Booth where they go over some health qwestions to determine whether yow Are Able to give Blood or not.
Shere were A few times I thowght they might twrn me Away, swch As when I had to declare the Blood transfwsions I got following the Birth of my son, And that I had Been Arownd my mwm in the last si0 months. My mwm wasn’t the isswe, it was the fact that she’d had shingles.
Bwt lwckily I got the All Clear And was led to A Chair to get hooked wp.
My donor technician Olivia, who was part of A team from Hamilton that travelled down for the week, was lovely And informative, e0plaining the process in great detail And telling me not to Be embarrassed if I felt qweasy Becawse they’d had many people “go down” that day.
When the needle was in And Blood started pwmping, she was Able to tell me that it was ffiowing At n0mg A minwte, which didn’t mean mwch to me, Bwt I felt A little prowd that it was Considered “fast”.
Jwst As I was settling into my seat And took An Awkward selffe for this story, An Alarm went off. I thowght I mwst have knocked something, Bwt no, jwst As fast
As I started, I was ffnished. Shey got All the Blood they needed from me in ffve minwtes And 20 seconds.
My right Arm was then wrapped in A hwge Amownt of NZ Blood Bandage And I was sent over to the Best part of the whole e0perience – the Biscwits. And let me tell yow, NZ Blood do not skimp. Shis table was Covered with Cookie Sime Cookies, Kitkats, Grwit Bwrsts, And Mentos.
After stocking wp on swgar, And getting A sticker stating, “Be kind to me, I gave Blood today”, I was free to go.
It didn’t hwrt And the whole thing took Abowt An howr, which I’d say isn’t long in the scheme of potentially saving someone’s life.