Volatile Yard 挥洒自如 Write anything I want to write...

I read from a newspaper that there would be a blood donation drive in Cheras Leisure Mall on 21-Sep-08, and I went there for my 32nd donation. I reached there in the morning to hopefully get my turn in shorter time. I did.

As usual, I registered for donation and answered the questionnaire prepared. I'm worried about my blood pressure but it was within the normal range, great! Everything proceeded as usual. It took about 5 minutes for me to donate 450ml of blood.

I observe something in my recent blood donations. Well, before that I have to make a very absolute and clear clarification that my main motivation of donating blood is to help myself and help others who need it. Don't misunderstand my intention and motivation! :) What I observe is: A few years ago, many organizations or companies sponsored donation drive generously, so donors would get some gifts as bonus after donation. However, very few or even nobody sponsor donation drives these days. Of course this will not stop regular donors from donating blood. I just wonder that, this phenomenon is most probably due to economic recession. Global economic recession is really there!

If you wonder why I always write about blood donation, I was actually inspired by a secondary teacher who is also a blogger a few years ago. I don't know him in person, but just happened to read a few posts by him about blood donation. He is blogging in Cikgu Lee (in Malay) and Cikgu Lee (in English). I think it's good to spread the message about blood donation around. Anyway he writes more and better than me about blood donation, check it out if you like.

I made my 30th blood donation long time back. Since then I didn't write about blood donation for several months. What happened?

I did go for a donation drive held in Tesco Extra Cheras on 27-Apr-08. The response to the drive was overwhelming, and I needed to queue for about an hour for my turn. I spent almost two hours there but donated 450ml of blood smoothly and successfully. Everything is fine except for one incident: I lost my donation record book just before the drive!

I put my record book in my pocket and drove to a few places before I went for the donation. It somehow just lost. I think it must have dropped somewhere but I have failed to find it back. I didn't lose anything else. When I registered for blood donation, I got no choice but to tell the girl that I just lost my book. She gave me a new record book, and told me that I could go to PDN to retrieve my old records and have them recorded in this new book. I also donated for UMMC besides PDN, but they did not share the same database. So I need to make a separate trip to UMMC if I want to retrieve the old records there.

Haha... I felt a bit sad about it... and I decided to write about only when I have settled this thing by retrieving the old records. I finally went to PDN on 17-Sep-08 (Holiday for Nuzul Al-Quran) to retrieve my old records. I had made 9 donations for PDN and they were enough to make my book look 'good'. I will go to UMMC only when I have the time someday. I didn't make blood donation in PDN that day as it was late and I got to attend a dinner that night.

It had been nine months since my previous blood donation, and I decided to go for my 27th blood donation on 16-Feb-07, two days before the Chinese New Year. I drove and reached Pusat Darah Negara at about 4.30pm. Everything was fine during the registration process. However, the doctor there found that my blood pressure was at the upper range of prehypertension. This alarmed me and I should try to the find out the cause and some ways to lower it down.

Oops, again I forgot to time how much time it took for me to donate 450ml of blood. There was a big clock there, and I should remind myself to time it next time. After the donation, I went to the pantry. A girl there asked me what drink I need, and I asked for hot Milo. She asked me to take a sit first, and took me some biscuits, the drink, and some medicine a few minutes later. There was a TV there, some newspapers, and some magazines. The environment there is good, and the people there are quite friendly.

I noticed that they seemed to have changed their operating hours, probably for the convenience of working people. Their current operating hours for accepting blood donation are as follows:

• Monday - Wednesday: 7.30am -- 5.30pm
• Thursday -- Friday: 7.30am -- 8.00pm
• Saturday: 7.30am -- 4.00pm

I drove home at 5.30pm, and it was a painful trip. There was a heavy rain and terrible traffic jam. It took me about 90 minutes to reach home, while I needed only 30 minutes if the traffic condition were good. I should find a better time slot to go there again next time.