1 gallon to a good home

I received my 1 gallon pin when donating at the Red Cross last night.

My next donation is scheduled for 1/8/09. I could have gotten my 1 gallon 2 donations ago, but I wasn't paying attention. If I keep my donation schedule to every 2 months I should be getting my 2 gallon pin at the beginning of 2010, which would be neat.

I'm annoyed that my iron levels keep testing low each time and they need to do a second stick. Last night they were 11.5 and when they retested they were 13.7. Maybe I should have them test the left finger first since that always seems to do the trick. Usually I test low if my fingers are cold so some jogging in place and warming my fingers does the trick. Considering the amount of meat and iron rich foods I eat it seems odd to me.

The tech doing the draw got the vein in one stick. It was a thing of beauty and I had zero pain! Amazing.