My employer, Salem, had the United
Blood Services in our parking lot in a mobile blood donation unit today. I have given blood with them before, and did not have a good experience last time. Last time, I got very fidgety and uncomfortable about 1/2 way through and had to stay in the blood mobile for an extra amount of time while they watched me.

This time, I brought my book on CD (The Jansen Directive by Robert Ludlum) and some headphones, thinking it would distract me and keep me from wigging out. It did! I don’t know if I was bleeding faster today or if it was all about not thinking about what I was doing, but the time seemed to fly. I only got to listen to about 5 minutes of my book. Since it took so little time actually hooked up to the bag, I just kicked back on the recovery couch and finished off my CD.