Blood Donation

[ndrosen]

There was a bloodmobile at the Patent Office Friday morning, and I was scheduled to give blood. After I filled out the questionnaire, I got a quick exam, at which my blood pressure was eighty-eight over fifty something. The Red Cross gentleman asked whether it was always that low. I told him that it tended to be on the low side, but was normally a hundred and something over sixty something. He said that with an upper number below ninety, I couldn’t donate, but I could try again in ten minutes. I asked whether I should get some exercise, and he said he wasn’t allowed to advise me.

I got a cup of black coffee, and walked up the twenty-four step staircase between the Concourse and the first floor of the Randolph building four times. When I came back, my systolic pressure was over a hundred, and the diastolic also notably higher. They let me give blood, which I did without ill effects.

Comments

[filkferengi]

Yay, you, for donating!

[ndrosen]

Thank you. I should admit, though, that the Patent Office lets me write off time for donating blood, so my production looks better.

[filkferengi]

Did they have good snacks? We get Nutter Butters & sometimes Oreos [the micro-packs]. Woot.

When I was at BYU in the 1980s, they had Mrs. Field's Cookies [they were invented nearby]; I miss them still.

[ndrosen]

I don’t recall what they had in the way of snacks. Water was available, but I wasn’t thirsty, having recently drunk the coffee.