Rejected

I decided a few years ago to become a die-hard, card-carrying Red Cross Blood Donor. I'd made a couple of half-hearted attempts at this commitment once before, but the first time the nurse who injected the needle to start the blood flowing must've been using a dull-tipped instrument, and the second time I nearly passed out a couple of hours after the donation.

That was it, I told myself. No more blood donating.

Then Ken, who has given literally many gallons of blood over the years, had open-heart surgery. As a result of his double-by-pass, he's on various medications which prohibit his donating blood.

Consequently, after mulling this over for awhile, and after realizing Ken regrets not being a blood donor any more, I decided to quit my whining and fussing, to quit making excuses, and to put on my big-girl panties and become a bona fide donor.

Yesterday I was to give yet another pint of blood. I looked forward to having my blood donor card updated with yet another pint given. I arrived at the donor site, read the multi-page manual, and declared I was ready to give.

A nurse took me to one of the cubicles, checked my blood pressure, drew a smidgen of blood from a finger tip (always the most painful part of blood donating) to check my hemoglobin, then settled into asking me the long list of required questions which a donor must answer before each and every donation.

Had I lived in a foreign country for more than three years? No

Do I have hepatitis? No

Have I lived with anyone with hepatitis? No

Am I pregnant? No!

Have I ever had sex with a prostitute? Definitely not.

Do I take any of the following medications (Coumadin being one)? No

Have I traveled outside the country in the past 12 months? Yes

What countries have a traveled to? Singapore and China

What cities did I visit in China? Chengdu and Beijing

While in either city, did I travel outside that city? Yes.

Where? Luodai, a village just outside of Chengdu

The nurse promptly excused herself and returned to our cubicle a few minutes later with a World Atlas. She found China, had me point to Chengdu, then tried to find Luodai.

I explained that Luodai is, by Chinese standards, a "small village" and is probably not on her map. I then added, humorously I thought, that of course in China, a small village probably has a million residents.

She studied the map some more, excused herself again, came back about five minutes later, and said I'd visited an area of the world which might have exposed me to malaria. Malaria can present itself in a patient up to one year from the date of exposure, so I can't donate blood to the Red Cross again until after May of this year.

I showed the nurse my donor card and pointed out that I had already donated TWICE since returning from China, once last June and again in October.

She excused herself from our cubicle again, stayed gone for quite awhile this time, then returned to tell me, once and for all, that I wouldn't be allowed to donate that day or at all until after May 2011. She asked if I'd answered the usual litany of questions the same way last June and again in October. I assured her I had.

So I left with the same amount of blood in my system that I'd walked into the donor site with.

What has occurred to me since yesterday, though, is that a slight difference in wording of the questions might cause me to answer them differently.

If I were asked, "What cities did you visit in China?" and I answered "Chengdu and Beijing," and I were then asked, "Did you visit any other cities?" I'd no doubt respond with "No."

But this nurse asked if I'd gone outside of either Chengdu or Beijing. That's a horse of a different color, so of course I replied "Yes."

Either way, I'm on the wagon until the end of May, and I'm disappointed.