There Will Be Blood...

...if there's a needle poking into the vein at your arm directing the blood to the blood bag located right under you. Yes I've donated blood for Convex and this is the seventh time I donated blood since I am legally allowed to donate blood on my own consent three years ago. (I was so young and naive!) Still wondering how does the frequent donor benefits that's stated behind the blood donor book works JUST IN CASE (touchwood) I ever need one.

Here's a full list of what's going on over Convocation Expo this year. The blood donation drive is over the Pre-Convex time. To be exact, 15 September Tuesday.

Blood donation drive is one of those very common sight in any higher education institutions and usually organized alongside a series of activities which has no relation to one another just to bring some sense of purpose or "giving back to society" type of brownie point to the overall theme of the activities. The blood bank certainly don't mind about that though because higher education institution is the best place to find fresh blood (literally) to replenish their always depleting blood bank. Blood donation drive is also a great place to find new blood donor which have the potential to donate more the next time the blood donation drive comes around campus again. Blood donation drive in USM Main Campus is always held around Foyer DK U (like this one I attended) or Foyer DTSP because that's where the crowd is! A lot of them that donated on that day are indeed new blood donors too. I hope they were as excited as I do when I did that three years ago and I hope they will continue to donated blood after this. Remember though, you're only allowed to donate blood once every three month! 

Being held in Foyer DK U means that I can just walk out from my room first thing in the morning, reached there in five minutes, donate blood, have a quick complementary breakfast and head back to room again! Doing this for the seventh time, the whole process of filling up forms and going through the blood test and such feels like a routine already. It's good that they made this whole screening process compulsory (I know it's compulsory for health and safety reason but!) because I got a sneak peek of my latest health condition...and what a surprise I had. Will talk about it later.

Went through the blood screening smoothly,  picked up all those equipment (blood bag and such) needed and head over the blood donation area. As I lie down and get ready though, the medical assistant asked: "Dah makan belum?" "Belum makan lagi." (because I was thinking of the free milo and kueh that I can get after this so I thought it's ok that I skip breakfast in my room.) "Pergi makan dulu." And thus I was ushered over to snack station, had a quick cup of milo and currypuff and went back to my bed again. That's embarrassing. Say, what's the policy regarding food intake before blood donation again?

The needle poking was quick but not without a little exploratory smack on the arm to find the pulse before the actual needle poking happens. As soon as the MA find the pulse, he pushes the needle and blood flows out. Success!
 

So here I was wearing a red jersey, reaching down to my pants pocket for my camera and took a camwhore picture with one shaky hand. My double chin is DERP.

There it is, blood flowing out from my arm.

The MA spotted me camwhoring so he helped me to take a picture of me donating blood.

Not too long after, my blood bag is full and I am almost done with this session of blood donation. As swift as the process goes, the MA stopped the blood flowing into the bag using a clip like device, cut the plastic vessel, pull out the needle, cover the puncture on my arm with a cotton and fold my arm to stop the blood from flowing. Then the waiting begins, again for health and safety reason to ensure the blood flow goes back to normal and prevent people for fainting by standing up immediately after blood donation...and it's boring because there's nothing else for you to do except staring at the ceiling wondering when will the MA comes to give you a plaster for the needle puncture.
 

The best thing of blood donation is of course the free milos and snacks, this time currypuff, muffin and chococate short cake from Gardenia and of course, Milo. I helped myself with all of it just for the free breakfast. Besides that, if the blood donation is held along side with other activities (such as this time, Convex), more freebies can be expected...as random as Sunsilk Anti-Dandruff Shampoo because apparently Sunsilk is this year's main sponsor and they have hundreds of boxes of free shampoo to be given out. With THIS much of shampoo, expect exceptionally high number of student that's dandruff free with silky black hair.

The plaster. Not a good one because it fell off a few hours later but doesn't matter much anyway because the needle puncture is tiny and not obvious at all.

My blood donor booklet finally got itself a protective plastic cover courtesy of Penang General Hospital Blood Bank. It's embarrassing how battered my blood donor booklet is because the blood donor book (along with my wallet) had went through a lot with me...to be precised, PPMS training two years ago in Kem BTN Ulu Kenas during that particular obstacle course which I need to crawl through muddled water. I am luckily the whole booklet didn't disintegrate altogether destroying whatever blood donation evidence that I had before.

Meanwhile, talking about surprise during health screening, my latest body weight. 82kg. (This picture is taken after I donated my blood actually...which means I am donating 500g worth of blood in that session.) I am not sure whether I should be amused or bemused with the fact that I lost 9kg in the span of one year because for the past one year (coincidentally, me being a postgrad), I hadn't been eating well with instant noodle replacing one of the daily meals for months now.  Walking around here and there in campus and Penang helped too but otherwise secondary to the factor of my weight lost and I never exercise. Heck, I spent most of my evening napping! In other word, I lost weight by practicing unhealthy, unfulfilling diet as well as idling. Pretty unbelievable. Or is it because of a combination of loneliness and stressing out? One good side effect though: my double chin is getting smaller and I look slimmer as remarked by everyone that've seen me recently for the past one year. Divided feeling it is.

That's all for now I guess. Watch out this space for more updates about my escapade especially with regards to Convex 2011 in USM!

Epilogue: Come forth, motivation! Help me defeat procrastination! Every time I read journal in the evening, I fall asleep. Maybe it's because of the good weather, my dark room because of closed curtains and I lie on bed while reading. My eyes...it feels so heavy.