Feb 18, 2010

got injured at blood donation


am quite irritated now. wanted to do a good deed, but now the competition season (which i have trained so hard for) might be compromised.


the red cross came to NUS last friday for a blood donation drive. i decided to join the gang of people heading down to donate blood. i havent donated blood before and naturally felt a little apprehensive. but the fact that i'm doing a good deed (potentially saving the life of a stranger) put all my worries to rest.

too bad the nurse screwed up. i have several grouses all aimed at her incompetence. firstly, she told me that my vein is too small and that i need to exercise more. i told her that i exercised quite a lot (if hanging 50kg weights off myself to do pull ups is not considered exercise i dont know what is), but she just waved me off. seriously, since when did small vein equate a lack of exercise? secondly, my blood flow was rather slow. so for reasons known only to her, she repeatedly removed and inserted the thick needle into my vein to 'try to speed up the process'. the vein eventually got punctured and collapsed. the area around the injured vein is severely bruised. as a result my left arm is really weak now. thirdly, they gave me a anti-bruising ointment which i realised i was allergic to after application. i developed rashes around the area where the ointment was applied.

as of now, the entire area is bluish blackish, and the surrounding veins are reddish (prolly from the extra workload). it is painful when i press down on it.

i cant carry heavy things, i cant climb, and the competition season is just 2 weeks away.

8 comments:

  1. Bummer. =/
    I got this nagging ankle injury bugging me these few weeks too. =(

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  2. this is kinda absurd. hao xin mei hao bao. sway man.

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  3. hi anonymous,

    thanks for your concern/comment.

    do leave your name. i sincerely prefer to know who i'm talking to. =).

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  4. dude u shld ask for advice before u donate. never get a young nurse to do it for you. ask for the oldest auntie there. for e.g. someone with 19 yrs experience. i got her to do it for me. not becos i'm scared, but its to avoid this kind of things. i've donated a few times by now alr. so my experience tells me that. and dont donate if u have some physical events in less than a month. your body lacks blood to carry oxygen to the rest of the body parts. try jogging about a few days before and after u donate and u will know wad i mean. nonetheless, take care

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  5. hmm i thought donate blood liao the next day can recover mah.

    long time never hear from you! how did you find your way here?

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  6. Hi Jansen,
    I've been following your blog and I'm really sorry to hear about your nasty encounter with blood donation. If it makes you feel any better, it'll be good to know that you're just suffering a flesh wound and it'll be fine over a couple of days and wouldn't affect your performance....now for the BAD news.

    Serious athletes MUST know that blood volume and blood flow besides lung capacity and our musculature, determines performance. Since blood is the carrier of oxygen to our working muscles and also functions to remove lactate, any form of reduction in volume and/or flow will inhibit performance. It takes an incredible amount of aerobic exercise to increase blood volume and returning it to it's original volume takes approx 2 months. And that's why I'll never ever give it away. Hope I didn't dampen your psyche cos all serious athletes need to know this.

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  7. i didn't say that. but it is true. anyway, i've been reading ur blog for quite some time. kinda ever since u posted it on ur msn nick.

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  8. Hi Spyder,

    Thanks for the heads up! Didnt get to reply you earlier. Couldnt find time =(. I really appreciate all your insights!

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