Day 158 ~ I gave Blood Again!

two stickers for me!

Saturday, I gave blood again. And I did "double Reds" which has something to do with platelets and it takes longer. It hurt a little bit because the technician didn't put the needle in correctly and, as a result, the blood wasn't flowing right. Someone else fixed it, and my arm didn't hurt anymore.

You can read about the last time I gave blood here.  I did the weekend I lost my job!

See you tomorrow!

Day 129 ~ Checking my Blood Pressure - Everyday

My blood pressure this morning

My blood pressure has been a bit on the high side so when I went to the VA Clinic for the very first time, they said they would mail me a Blood Pressure machine. It is simple to use.

relaxing, taking my BP

The nurse (named Patty) told me to take a deep breath first and then press the button and then breathe normally.  The deep breath relaxes you a bit.  I have started taking blood pressure meds and it did help in bringing it down which is good but I should lose weight and cut down on the salt and that would be a better way to control my BP.

My back up record

The machine records my stats each time I use it so I have to make sure no one else uses the machine. I have to bring the machine with me when I go back for a check up so Dr. Wong can read the results.  I make a written record on a notepad to back up what is in the machine.

See you tomorrow.

Day 23 ~ Giving Blood!

The trucks with the blood sucking equipment!

 Sure, I may have just lost my job but I forgot that I made an appointment to give blood Saturday morning so first thing on Saturday, I woke up and drove to the Ramada Inn where the Red cross was collecting blood! I spent the rest of the day running errands with my wife and Sunday I have plans in NYC (You should see pics of NYC tomorrow, hopefully) so I don't get to do the Resume/unemployment thing until Monday! Who knew being unemployed could be so time consuming!

about to get stuck! Yikes

The bloods 'aflowing!

Lost my Job! Take my Blood! What else do you want?

the view from my table

not so bad~ when I'm done, I get cookies!

 It took a bit longer to give blood because I also gave plasma platelets, They took my blood, removed the platelets and then returned the blood with calcium which made my lips tingle and made me feel a bit nausea..

But, it's worth it to do a good deed!