Swiss Cake Rolls

 

Today at lunch, I scooted over to the KY Blood Center to donate my life giving blood in honor of a very special little girl who didn't get a chance to live her beautiful life.

It has been a long time since I have been to give blood. I use to go quite regularly and enjoyed knowing I was helping in my own small way. Since getting pregnant and having a kid, I just haven't found my way back there. I am a little ashamed of this since it only take 30 minutes max and the center is a hop, skip and a jump away from my work. I plan to put this on my lunch agenda every 60 days from here on out. In fact, I think I will go make a meeting request about it right now. Hold on a second.

*insert elevator music here*

OK, I am back.

So I was taking back quickly and the pre-screen began. All very standard. Answer some question, get your finger pricked to check your iron, take temp, blood pressure and pulse. All good.

They take me back to the chair. Ahh the chair. Legs elevated, chair is a slight recline. It is actually a slightly awkward position to be sat in. This older woman, who you could just tell knew what she was doing, said she would be right with me. Now, any of you who have give blood or had blood taken, you KNOW you want an experienced person to poke you. Otherwise, you are at risk to be poked several times before they hit a vein. So you can imagine the sigh of relief when I thought I was getting Ms. Experienced. I watched her finish up the guy next to me and waited patiently for my turn.

After a few minutes this very pretty and very young girl came up to me. Well damn! She starts prepping my stuff and I make casual chit chat. Come to find out she is fresh out of school with a marketing degree and couldn't find a job so she works at the blood center. A MARKETING DEGREE!! Thats what I do! Shit. Shit. Shit. I wish I hadn't even asked. She informs me you dont need any kind of degree to be a Phlebotomist. Just an 8 week course and they let you jam needles into peoples arms. I am sweating a little by this point. Lucky for me, I have easy veins and bleed like a stuck pig. Had my husband been in the chair this would be a completely different blog post.

Overall she did do a good job. Only stuck me once, albeit a little hard (ouch) and only had to jiggle the needle in my arm once to get the blood flowing (again, ouch). It hurt- but not unbearable. 15 minutes later I was drained of a pint of my blood. As I got up to leave, my Phlebotomist reminded me of the refreshments up front. Never one to turn down a treat, I went to see what they had. That's when I saw it. A Swiss Cake Roll! I haven't had one of these in FOREVER. It was sooooooooooo good too. I resisted the urge to  peel apart the rolls and lick the cream off, then devour the cake the way I would have if I was enjoying the cakey goodness from the privacy of my own home, but man I wanted to! I also resisted the urge to throw all of them into my purse and make a run for it. It reminded me why I dont buy these for the house.


Lesson of the day: I should give blood more often. Then I get a Swiss Cake Roll!