Back when I worked at the hospital, they used to have blood drives on site all the time, so I donated regularly. At least half the time they didn't want my blood due to anemia, so when I no longer worked at the hospital and had to actually travel somewhere to give blood, I kind of stopped doing it. It's a real pain to take time off of work and travel halfway across town just to be rejected. Lately the Red Cross has been reminding me that they really need my Type O+ blood, so I tried a few weeks ago. My iron was amazingly high, like it's never been before, but then they saw rashes on the insides of my elbows that I hadn't even noticed, probably from gardening in the heat, and so they rejected me. They said technically I could try the next day, but wait until the rashes cleared up.
Now the rashes are gone, so I went in yesterday. My iron levels were still really good, but they couldn't get my blood pressure. Finally on like the fourth try they said it was 140/100, but that it was so high from them poking at me so much. They waited ten minutes and then it was 150/110, but they said not to worry about it, it was from them poking at me. Here's the thing: I have a blood pressure cuff at home, and it used to give me believable readings, but lately it had been telling me things like 150/110, so I just figured it no longer worked right, being a teenager at this point. But... what if my blood pressure really was 150/110?? So I emailed the doctor, and she said come in right away, so today I went in, with my own cuff, and first the nurse took my blood pressure (which was fine), and then she had me take it with my cuff (which was like 140/95). So my cuff is kaput, and they recommended getting a better kind if I wanted to check at home. Who knows what happened at the Red Cross? The traffic was horrible getting there, but then it was horrible getting to the doctor's office today too. Maybe I need to quit driving if I want to have a healthy blood pressure.
Famous Hat
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