Got Blood?

My son reached a milestone today. He gave his first pint of blood. It should have been a rather uneventful event, and for the most part, it was. The giving part went just fine. I suggested to him that he might want to take it easy at wrestling practice in the afternoon but he informed me that he was going to be giving in the morning and he would “BE FINE!” In his ever wise teenage wisdom what did I really know??? I am just the mom after all, not to mention having had life teaching experiences, especially when it has come to giving blood.

Years ago, I thought I was "fine" shortly after giving blood, and I jumped in the car and was off. Shortly there after, I felt the overcoming feeling of darkness over me. Luckily I was able to pull over before I actually did pass out, but it made for a scary afternoon (all before cell phones were available to contact someone) I explained this to him and told him he might be tired. Again his response was “I’ll be fine”, so I gave up trying to convince him otherwise, he sometimes can be a rather stubborn kid (I have NO idea where he gets that characteristic from)

I went to pick him up from wrestling practice that afternoon. He then informed me that prior to practice he had taken off the compression bandage that they had taped him up with after giving blood. He had felt fine and was working out with his partner when he noticed some blood on him. Blood in the wrestling room is not such an unusual thing, so he started looking at his partner thinking it was coming from him. It wasn’t. My son checked his nose—nope, wasn’t him either, or so he thought. Upon further examination he looked at his arm and in his words it was SPURTING. He told me, “Mom there was blood all over the mat and my shirt was covered in it.” He headed off to the trainers office where she had him dispose of his shirt treating it as a hazardous material. She got him taped up and told him to take it easy….he listened to her????