The Blood Donation

Last weeks blood donation went off without a hitch. I thought my T1DM status would flag me for some 'off to the side' questions outside the battery of normal ones. It didn’t. In fact, noone seemed to care.

My goal was to go into the donation process with a bG as close to 100 as possible. I was almost thwarted in this as I awoke Saturday with a bG of 221. After administering a correction bolus and eating a modest breakfast I was off. At an in route stoplight I took a reading – 75. I had about 15 minutes of IOB from the correction bolus and an hours worth from breakfast. I did a quick check-in with my hypo sensors, but everything felt fine. I was a little concerned nonetheless

Fortunately, shortly after beginning the reading/sign-your-life-away process a lady came around asking if we wanted anything to drink. I immediately snagged a small OJ (21 grams of carb) and relaxed.

The rest of the time was uneventful. I gleened some tips from Ryan Bruner in his post about donating. Because of his dehydration issues I took it upon myself to drink plenty of fluids the day before as well as that morning. I filled the bag in a little over 10 minutes. I felt slightly dizzy upon initially standing, but otherwise I was fine.

My readings have been pretty erratic this week, but I actually think this has more to do with allergies and the sickeningly sweet smelling shrub blooming beside our house (and all over town) than it does with blood donation.

My advice is to give if you can. It seems the general consensus, around here anyway, is the available supply of clean donors is dwindling. This may be the reason they’re now allowing T1DMs to donate. I don’t really know. Regardless, I hope this small act will help someone in their own health crisis.