I did it! \(^_^)/

Learnt from my bro-in-law that there would be a blood donation drive in Kovan on Sat. So decided to give it another go.

The drive was conducted in the community centre in Kovan and when I got there, I was relieved to see that it wasn't packed. In fact, it was too quiet ... the number of staff far outweighs the donors. There were only like two donors on the bed and one person filling up the form.

I filled up the form and immediately went to the counter to register. No queue (yay!). However, I guessed the system wasn't able to do any verification remotely and hence I sat there like a good 15 mins while the counter staff stared at the screen (dunno do what) before she opened her mouth and asked me whether I could recall when was my last donation. Of course I couldn't remember and so she made a phone call to the main office (i suppose HSA) to verify my details and get my last donation date. -____-" Thankfully there wasn't a crowd if not this process would become a very serious bottleneck.

Once my details are verified, the rest went past in a breeze. Next station was to have my medical screening by the doc. This time, I came well prepared. I had bought a bottle of mineral water at the drinks stall before heading to the CC (even ate pig kidney the night before!! haha) and drank some water before my medical screening. I was staring at the measurements as it declined but thankfully the doc just said a "ok! normal!" and cleared me for donation! I was so relieved and fearing that he might think I might be unwell and yet wanted to donate, I hastily explained that I was rejected the week before for my low bp. He told me that the next time that happened, I just need to run around the premises to get my bp up and ask for a retest. Hahaha ... well, apparently this low bp thing is very common lor for him to dish out such tips

Next station, check for my iron level or something. Again everything was ok and I proceeded finally to donate blood. The staff gingerly gave me one A4 piece of paper on iron-rich food. She explained that my iron level is marginally low and I have to increase my iron intake if not i risk not being able to donate blood in future. She told me that recent studies they did showed that donors with iron deficiency who continue to donate blood may affect their own health and so in future donors with iron below 12.5 would be turned away. Mine was 12.5 so I was at "risk". Hence, this time, I did not decline their iron pills and reminded myself to increase my iron intake. However, til now, I still haven't taken the pills :P The pills must be taken 30mins before food, and I can never remember to do that :P

I felt fine after the donation and had my lunch right after. Only felt a sudden queasiness where my senses sort of shut down momentarily while I was walking but that lasted like a minute before everything cleared.

Next donation, 1 Sep... (^-*)

Til then, more iron rich food for me.

I search on iron deficiency and found an article that said long distance runners might be at risk of low iron levels. I'm definitely no long distance runners. So for those of you out there hitting i dunno, 50+km a week mileage, you might also want to take note and increase your iron intake. Pig kidneys more often! :P