Give blood more regularly

and replacing it with the specific goal of donating blood in february next year. i will be back home by then.

i’ve heard the australians consider our blood high risk due to the BSE outbreak.

i did this again today and the process was very quick but then when i was putting on my jumper my arm started bleeding and i felt faint and dizzy and had to lie down for a while and drink water. that’s never happened before, and it wasn’t particularly pleasant. oh well, i feel fine now. i probably didn’t drink enough water before i went. the staff were very kind.

I’ve been declined the past two times I’ve gone.

It’s kind of disheartening. :(

gave blood today. talked to the nurse about possibly going on the bone marrow donor register. i think i will. it doesn’t commit you to anything.

with h. looking forward to getting this done, it’s been on my to do list for far too long.

had my ears pierced last may so i have a couple more months before i can start this one. in the past i’ve had a lot of problems with not being able to donate due to early iron deficiency, so i guess to achieve this goal i have to start eating more grean leafy veg and vitamin c filled food…and stop drinking so much tea! it just gets more and more difficult! i love tea! i’m english for goodness sake!!

It makes me lightheaded, but it’s worth it.

I can do both whole blood and apheresis (platelets): it seems the latter is more in need, as it doesn’t keep long and not as many people do it (it’s a more involved process than whole blood).

I can do both, I suppose, but our blood bank seems to have trouble scheduling both.

...so ‘more regularly’ doesn’t quite cover the extent of my failure.

But, I will make amends. Twice a year from now on.