I was told to sign in and wait. And then I filled out some forms and waited some more. And then someone took me into a cubicle to fill out some more forms and to prick my finger for some tests.

First off, they have a weight limit on donating blood. I guess bigger people have more blood spare, so they marked my chart with a MINIMUM WEIGHT written in red ink.

Then she pricked my finger for the clotting test. I was fine there.

My blood pressure is 110/76. I guess that�s fine. She didn�t have anything bad to say about that.

Then she pulled more blood from my finger and checked my hemoglobin. I had a 12.9, and 12.5 is the minimum. (Tofu steak for dinner, anyone?)

So she�s tsk-tsking to herself about my weight and my iron count, saying that I�m borderline. Blah blah blah.

Then she took my temperature, and I had a 99.6. An elevated temperature means no blood-giving for me, even though I feel fine and have no symptoms of anything.

So there. I tried to give away my blood for free, and people wouldn�t even take it.

To make things worse, that took up almost 45 minutes. Grrr.

I�m really going to have a hard time going back if I�m going to have to go through a bunch of stuff that I�m already borderline on and possibly not be allowed to give blood. It�s so anticlimactic to fill out those forms, talk with someone about everything on there, get poked and prodded and bled to test things and then be told that I�m not allowed to donate.

Ugh.

So no blood for you. Or you. Or you.�