DUGO MULA SA PUSO: My first time to donate blood

     Just before I was about to go church, coming from SM North, I saw two men wherein one of which had a cotton on the middle part of his arm. Then I looked at the time realizing I can still make it to the Health Service and donate blood. Luckily, I was the last one to sign up and was the second to the last to be injected with a needle on attached on a blood donation bag because the last person needed to take 15 minutes to relax before obtaining blood from him.

     I was asked to answer three pieces of questionnaire before going to the next step which is the medical check up. the questionnaire will boil you and will make you admit you did not have sex with someone from Haiti and did not involve into sexual relationship with a person in the same sex. The fresh board-taker doctor who was tasked to get my weight, height, and interview me and whom I find cute and pretty, observed that I have an abnormal blood level my age which is 130/80 to the normal 120/80. I told her maybe it is because I have had only three hours of sleep last night, and she understood. The next stage was the ballpen-trick prick. This is when they use a ballpen-look thing to dissect blood from your finger that will undergo an examination that will take only for minutes. The hemoglobin count and the percentage on how many blood can be dissected from me. If it's above 140, you are qualified to donate blood. Luckily, mine was 160 and 47% of blood can be obtained from me. 

     As I lay down on the bed for preparation, I met another pretty doctor and a fellow student who is a sophomore Applied Physics major named Eric. He was about to fill the plastic bag as I looked at it. He was nice, we did some chat while undergoing the blood-letting process. It was our first time to donate and we found it exciting and thrilling. The injection did not hurt much but I only felt pain with the way the male doctor removed the needle from me.

    450 mL of blood was gotten out from my system today but it was really worth it! I only felt a bit sad when the doctor said that I can only use the donation card at the Philippine General Hospital and not in other institutions.

    Knowing that you can help someone by this simple donation feels so good within, literally. The fact that your bone marrow can generate more and fresh blood in the system. I even asked the doctors if I can still donate on Thursday but they said I can donate every after three months only. So I will be waiting for January for another blood-letting campaign because it only takes a few "ouch" and "fck" to help others. 

    To my fellow iskolar ng bayan who did participate, congratulations to us for this is another avenue where we can give back to our kababayan who pay part of our tuition fee.