Blood donation

[cvcalhoun]

@Rockford10 161327 wrote:

For those interested, the donation went just fine.

I got a little turned around with the streets back there (man, what are they doing to the hospital!!), but that was my poor planning. My pulse was a little high, so I needed to wait about 20 minutes before they would take me back.

During and after the donation, other donors and staff asked me if I biked to work (I was wearing a BtWD shirt). I said “Yep, I usually ride to work. In fact, I rode here, and I need to ride to work from here!” The usual blather continued.

After donation, I drank two waters and two juices and had some cookies. Then, to escape the CNN coverage, I left. No one told me not to ride my bike, the only comment I got was to “not exercise.” Okey dokey.

In general, if you can, blood donation is a great thing to do! I got a specific call to donate, and felt I really needed to try and make it happen. I put in the effort to make it happen (via bike) and everything turned out well.

Just a warning on this: Exercising before a blood donation can give you a false positive on your ALT (a test used to screen for hepatitis). I am now permanently ineligible to donate on that basis, even though more precise tests have shown I don’t have hepatitis.

[lordofthemark]

@Rockford10 161327 wrote:

For those interested, the donation went just fine.

I got a little turned around with the streets back there (man, what are they doing to the hospital!!), but that was my poor planning. My pulse was a little high, so I needed to wait about 20 minutes before they would take me back.

During and after the donation, other donors and staff asked me if I biked to work (I was wearing a BtWD shirt). I said “Yep, I usually ride to work. In fact, I rode here, and I need to ride to work from here!” The usual blather continued.

After donation, I drank two waters and two juices and had some cookies. Then, to escape the CNN coverage, I left. No one told me not to ride my bike, the only comment I got was to “not exercise.” Okey dokey.

In general, if you can, blood donation is a great thing to do! I got a specific call to donate, and felt I really needed to try and make it happen. I put in the effort to make it happen (via bike) and everything turned out well.

Wow, I’ve never had a network cover one of my blood donations

I take it you rode straight from INOVA to Tysons?

[Author]

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