I hadn't given blood in a long time which for me is odd. We have the bus come here every 2 months and I used to give like clockwork.

So, I atoned for my sins by giving red blood cells rather than whole blood. A rather interesting procedure in and of itself.

You get hooked up to this machine which sucks out some blood, spins it, removes the red blood cells, and then pumps back in the plasma and platelets along with a little added saline.

The sucking out part was fine, it was the pumping back in that gave me the heebie-jeebies. Felt odd, like a small needle had been placed in my arm and a pressurized fluid put in. And I only say that because I have no other way of describing it.

The paper said that the procedure could cause nausea, chills, numbness in the lips, lightheadedness, and a funny taste in the mouth. Check, check, check, check, and check. I got 'em all. Oh yeah, possibly death but I was assured it was rare and so far, that one hasn't surfaced.

I can't give for 4 months, so at least next time I'll have an excuse. But it only took 25 minutes to give the maximum amount they could take, and so far the hallucinations have been fairly enjoyable.