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Blood donation
Feb. 26th, 2026 09:28 pmIt was time for another blood donation, and I finally found time to do that today after work.
I got lucky: the intake person managed a finger stick that didn’t hurt (this is usually the worst part of donation, so it’s noticeable*, and the phlebotomist was also excellent. (Also, very attractive.) We were chatting for the 5 min or so it took to drain enough blood, and it turned out that his sister graduated from $MyEmployer, 19 years ago. Which surprised me enough that I used my outside-my-head voice to say that either his sister is much older, or he looks seriously younger than he is. Turns out he’s 20, and all his siblings (and half-siblings) are seriously older than him: his father is in his 70s, and could be his grandfather. Whoa. He mentioned that he would’ve liked the chance to be a kid with siblings closer in age to hang out together, but did have the advantage of many more adults invested in him (in a way that made me think of Clara Barton.**)
On the way out, I recognized the other phlebotomist who’s my birthday twin, and he said that {other woman in a donor chair} was also our birthday twin, so we had a birthday triplets moment :-)
(And I got to tell her that we also share our birthday with The Count, from Sesame Street.)
* apparently Children’s Hospital and possibly also the Red Cross have ditched the finger stick (to determine hemoglobin levels; too much or too little (much more likely) disqualifies the donor for the day) in favor of something non-invasive. I’d really like MGH to get with the program.
** also apparently, I keep thinking Clara Barton thoughts around when donating blood. I suppose it makes some sense.
I got lucky: the intake person managed a finger stick that didn’t hurt (this is usually the worst part of donation, so it’s noticeable*, and the phlebotomist was also excellent. (Also, very attractive.) We were chatting for the 5 min or so it took to drain enough blood, and it turned out that his sister graduated from $MyEmployer, 19 years ago. Which surprised me enough that I used my outside-my-head voice to say that either his sister is much older, or he looks seriously younger than he is. Turns out he’s 20, and all his siblings (and half-siblings) are seriously older than him: his father is in his 70s, and could be his grandfather. Whoa. He mentioned that he would’ve liked the chance to be a kid with siblings closer in age to hang out together, but did have the advantage of many more adults invested in him (in a way that made me think of Clara Barton.**)
On the way out, I recognized the other phlebotomist who’s my birthday twin, and he said that {other woman in a donor chair} was also our birthday twin, so we had a birthday triplets moment :-)
(And I got to tell her that we also share our birthday with The Count, from Sesame Street.)
* apparently Children’s Hospital and possibly also the Red Cross have ditched the finger stick (to determine hemoglobin levels; too much or too little (much more likely) disqualifies the donor for the day) in favor of something non-invasive. I’d really like MGH to get with the program.
** also apparently, I keep thinking Clara Barton thoughts around when donating blood. I suppose it makes some sense.