What a week...
Well, I've had a pretty eventful week. Nothing too exciting, but I've been busy.
Tuesday-I tried to give blood again. After my iron first failed to be high enough, they used another testing method and my iron was just barely high enough. Then, my blood pressure was 100/46 (Ideal is 120/80). The bottom number has to be over 50 to donate, so they made me sit a while until it went up above 50. (My low blood pressure is why I always have problems with passing out. Doctors always think it's good because it's not high, but it doesn't seem healthy for it to be that low either-considering I get close to passing out because the blood isn't getting to my brain...) Anyways, they then asked all the questions about having sex for drugs, or sleeping with a man who slept with a man... They then got to the questions about traveling and I found out that where Derek and I went on our honeymoon has a high malaria rate, another red flag for me not to give blood. I should have just given up, but they said since it had been over a year ago I could give blood...finally, right? Well, then it went great, better than ever before, until right at the end andI became one of those silly people with their feet up and their head down, with an ice pack on my head! I was terribly faint, I thought I would pass out, but luckily I didn't. I always thought that was funny when people had to do that, and Tuesday that was me. But I got a full bag, didn't pass out, didn't have a bruise down my arm, and felt fine the next day, so I would say it was a success! (Last time after about an hour of poking and prodding a needle in my arm, I failed to fill the bag to their standards, so it got disposed of, and I wasted my time!)
Then I had 5 presentations over Wednesday and Thursday. I am so glad to be done!!! 5 in 2 days is excessive! But overall they went fine. And Wednesday night Derek and I took 24 of the youth group members to see the Power Team. Have any of you ever seen them? They do incredible feats of strength and then share their testimony. They broke concrete with their arm, ripped phone books in half, blew up hot water bottles until they burst, and exploded sodas with their bare hands. It's a strange combination with the testimony, but it really gets kids attention which was great.
Then today it started to snow...You may have read about snow in Illinois in my comment on Maria's blog, but it's worth repeating on mine because it's hilarious! So far we've gotten about 2-3 inches of snow today (based on my rough estimation, maybe more) Because of that 2-3 inches, most people are driving about 2 miles an hour and completely panicking! I even heard one dietitian talking about going to the grocery store to stock up because of "all the snow we are going to get." It's funny because although there is a good accumulation of snow, everyone here acts as if there's a blizzard. I don't know how they would survive in Ohio. It's also humorous working with two interns that are living their first winter up North. (One is from Mississippi, one from South Carolina) They are fascinated by snow and are constantly looking online to see what the temperature is! They also think 2-3 inches is a blizzard and 5 degrees is as cold as it gets. I keep telling them, "Just wait!"
This weekend my exciting plans are to see "Chronicles of Narnia" Is anyone else excited to see this??? I can't wait!
Tuesday-I tried to give blood again. After my iron first failed to be high enough, they used another testing method and my iron was just barely high enough. Then, my blood pressure was 100/46 (Ideal is 120/80). The bottom number has to be over 50 to donate, so they made me sit a while until it went up above 50. (My low blood pressure is why I always have problems with passing out. Doctors always think it's good because it's not high, but it doesn't seem healthy for it to be that low either-considering I get close to passing out because the blood isn't getting to my brain...) Anyways, they then asked all the questions about having sex for drugs, or sleeping with a man who slept with a man... They then got to the questions about traveling and I found out that where Derek and I went on our honeymoon has a high malaria rate, another red flag for me not to give blood. I should have just given up, but they said since it had been over a year ago I could give blood...finally, right? Well, then it went great, better than ever before, until right at the end andI became one of those silly people with their feet up and their head down, with an ice pack on my head! I was terribly faint, I thought I would pass out, but luckily I didn't. I always thought that was funny when people had to do that, and Tuesday that was me. But I got a full bag, didn't pass out, didn't have a bruise down my arm, and felt fine the next day, so I would say it was a success! (Last time after about an hour of poking and prodding a needle in my arm, I failed to fill the bag to their standards, so it got disposed of, and I wasted my time!)
Then I had 5 presentations over Wednesday and Thursday. I am so glad to be done!!! 5 in 2 days is excessive! But overall they went fine. And Wednesday night Derek and I took 24 of the youth group members to see the Power Team. Have any of you ever seen them? They do incredible feats of strength and then share their testimony. They broke concrete with their arm, ripped phone books in half, blew up hot water bottles until they burst, and exploded sodas with their bare hands. It's a strange combination with the testimony, but it really gets kids attention which was great.
Then today it started to snow...You may have read about snow in Illinois in my comment on Maria's blog, but it's worth repeating on mine because it's hilarious! So far we've gotten about 2-3 inches of snow today (based on my rough estimation, maybe more) Because of that 2-3 inches, most people are driving about 2 miles an hour and completely panicking! I even heard one dietitian talking about going to the grocery store to stock up because of "all the snow we are going to get." It's funny because although there is a good accumulation of snow, everyone here acts as if there's a blizzard. I don't know how they would survive in Ohio. It's also humorous working with two interns that are living their first winter up North. (One is from Mississippi, one from South Carolina) They are fascinated by snow and are constantly looking online to see what the temperature is! They also think 2-3 inches is a blizzard and 5 degrees is as cold as it gets. I keep telling them, "Just wait!"
This weekend my exciting plans are to see "Chronicles of Narnia" Is anyone else excited to see this??? I can't wait!
posted by Abby @ 7:33 PM
4 Comments:
At 8:15 PM,
Maria said…
The one time I gave blood my senior year of high school I was one of those people with my head down and feet up! I have never tried again, it made me feel horrible.
That's intersting that Illinois has the same reaction to snow as Kentucky. I wouldn't have thought so! Everyone here was freaking out too and I found it highly amusing. We didn't even get an inch of snow!
And finally, I never read the Chronicles of Narnia but I think it looks like a good movie and I wish I would have read the books!
At 7:23 AM,
Laura said…
AHH--The horrible event of trying to give blood! For some strange reason, I have very small veins, and the person trying to take my blood can never get the needle in. Shortly after I found out I was pregnant, I was supposed to have 6 tubes of blood drawn to be tested for a variety of strange things. I ended up having to be sent to a special lab because the regular one couldn't get the needle in my arm right. Then at this other lab, I had to be stuck in 3 different places before they finally hit my vein. They ended up getting blood out a vein by my wrist! And they stopped after 4 tubes because I was ready to pass out. So far, this has been the worst part of my pregnancy.
At 7:34 AM,
Jo said…
i give blood all the time, and its fine although i get a little scar.. you americans are all wimps!
At 6:31 AM,
abby said…
I'm so glad you tried to give blood again - what a trooper! lol! Jo - not all americans are wimps - I give blood!
I totally agree about the snow thing! Even Missouri people freak out - even though they do get a similar amount of snow as Ohio! However, I am an overconfident doofus and I slid in the snow and hit a curb at about 20mph. My wheel is dented, but the tire expert guy says it's fine to drive on. Oops!!
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