K and I donated blood today. It's a big day for donating blood here in Tegucigalpa. They had setups at different chapels throughout the city for it, and we were asked to take pictures and video at a few different buildings. We went to the first building this morning and both K and I tried to donate blood. I was worried that I wouldn't have enough iron because my iron is always low and I haven't been eating a lot of high iron foods lately. I had plenty though, so I went on to donate blood. After they had checked my iron levels and asked me all their questions they gave me a blood bag to carry to the other side of the building for them to use. I thought it seemed strange and a little less than sanitary, but you know, whatever. The guy rubbed my arm with rubbing alcohol(I'm hoping, but it definitely wasn't iodine) and then stuck the needle in. I didn't notice until K pointed it out, but they weren't wearing any gloves. Also it is normal to rub iodine on your arm to sanitize it when you donate blood, but they didn't do that either. When I was done they gave me a cotton ball to hold on my arm. I stopped using it after I dropped it on the floor like five minutes later, but I wished I had a bandaid or something. Oh, and they told K her iron level was too low to donate blood so she was disappointed.
Notice the absence of gloves and bandaging for my bleeding arm
(that's just a cotton ball sitting there on my arm).
So we went to the next building to get some video and pictures there, and K got her blood tested there to discover that her iron level was high enough to donate blood. It was kind of weird because it was like, definitely high enough, not like barely. We're not sure what was up with that first place...
At this second chapel it was a different company doing it, and it was quite different. One of the ladies there saw my arm and asked if I lost my bandaid. I told her I didn't have one. She was like, it must have fallen off, and immediately went and got me one. She acted almost worried that I didn't have a bandaid. I was glad to get one, though, it was kind of gross to not have one. The cleanliness standards at the second chapel seemed equal to those that I am used to in the US. They also gave blood donors a lunch box, so K has one of those now.
Here they are testing K's blood. Notice the presence of
gloves even at this stage of the blood donating process.
I'm glad that we got to donate blood while we're here, since we won't be able to donate in the US for like a year after we get back from Honduras. It had been a few years since the last time I donated blood, too, so it was really good we had the chance to today.
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