405ml

I went to blood donation again today after the first time on March last year. It seems that because this is a peak holiday season they need blood more desperately than they normally do and I keep receiving invitations, had been trying to book appointments but it always clashes with my working hours, till today.

This time I passed the iron level straight without too much 'effort'. Though when it came to giving blood, for some unknown reasons the blood just didn't flow, it kept running below the level, ended up having 4 different nurses kept coming around to look at me with 1 staying with me all the time. She explained to me the whole process normally takes 8-10 minutes and shouldn't exceed 15 minutes, and my blood flow could be as slow as the speed of 12ml/min (12x15 = 180ml, but we should be giving 475ml pack). Throughout the process I had been trying all the methods I know to relax myself and my arm, and also repeating opening and closing my palm (she said people don't normally need to do it for whole process =.=). At the end I managed to give 405ml before the time limit, which had some nurses cheering for me (because I was the last few ones, and because I was too slow then I became the last one, so generally they were all quite free at that time).

Luckily this time I suffered no bruise or dizziness :D. Unlike the first experience which was a bit traumatizing (read my post New Blood!). I just had a shower and it seemed that it bled a bit :S I probably tried too hard not to wet it. Anyway, another experience. :D