Jumping through Hoops

Today at work I had the chance to donate blood. I had talked to Master about it before. It is something I feel strongly about doing if possible and he gave his okay to go ahead. So, at around ten in the morning I hopped in a van along with several of my coworkers and off we went to get drained. If Master had said he didn't like the idea of me donating I would have not done so and I asked his permission before signing up to donate.

It should have been a fairly straightforward process. Go in, introduce self, sign shit. Lay in chair. Get poked. Donate. Give life. Get cookies.

Alas, it was not, hence the mention of hoop-jumping in the title of this post. 

I believe strongly in donating but have not done so on a regular basis. In fact, it's been about twenty years since last I rolled up my sleeve and allowed them to suck blood from my body. There's a reason for that. Years ago, at the tender age of 17 I raced down to the blood donor clinic as soon as possible and rolled up my sleeve.

Several weeks later I ended up with a letter saying I triggered some screening test and I was rejected. I got tested, had my results cleared and sent all of the paperwork off to the blood agency. I thought the matter was settled.

Apparently not. Now, I have to jump through a whole bunch of hoops and wait months for the chance to give blood. While it's important, I really am a little gun-shy at this point.

I'm glad they screen for diseases. I really am. It's important and if there IS something wrong with someone, I'm glad they pick up on it before it has a chance to infect the masses. I just don't know that I'm willing to keep jumping through hoops to give mine.