Red Cross Of Wenatchee Doesn't Want My Blood?

I'm not a spy. I sometimes wonder if I am related to one, somewhere in my line of ancestors. If I believed in past lives, I was probably a spy in my past life.

I just had a very odd encounter trying to give blood. Not only did they not seem to want my blood, they were giving me different ID numbers for singling my blood out and tracking it.

I wonder if some group didn't think my blood would be good to give to someone else, for some reason, or if they didn't want someone getting their hands on a sample of it and doing any kind of independent research. After all, if something did happen to me, even recently, as I claimed happened at the WVC and a few other places, well, it does affect the quality of blood I guess.

But no, nothing was normal about my trying to donate blood today.

I wish I knew who the two men were in this one sedan that passed me on 5th as I was walking to the college to give blood. The Red Cross was doing a blood drive yesterday and today and I signed up to donate.

So I get there, and just had this bad vibe. I had a feeling those two men who didn't look very happy, who were driving by, were onto something. So those guys, I felt somehow, knew something regarding me, or my son, was up.

I got to the college and usually I would feel great about donating blood. But yesterday and today, when I went, I felt very weird about everything. Like something wasn't right. I don't know what.

To the meat of the matter...Gosh I need to smoke. I need a butt!

Okay, so I got there and was told I needed to fill out this top part of a little flyer, with my name and date. I was given a flyer with a number on it for the "ID". I don't know why, but I looked at that number and for whatever reason, put it away into my bag and pulled out a flyer that was exactly the same, which I took and put in my bag the day before, which had no ID number on it.

I then approached the counter, and said, "Do I need an ID number?" and the woman acted like I needed one when I looked at saw an entire stack of flyers which they were handing out did not have numbers automatically on them. So she reaches up across her desk and pulls out a different flyer with the same number on it. At the very corner of her desk, out of the way, were two more flyers with the ID number on it, which I had been given. I still have that flyer and the number I was given is: 255172.

So I took the new one, with this number, and noticed I was being given a flyer which was out of the way and not given to everyone. I said nothing but crossed that number out. I then was given a tag number for my name to be called. I had been asked to make an appointment even though they said over the phone they do walk-ins. So I took the tag which was "37". I decided to put this tag number into the Red Cross folder I was given and then I was going to tell the people inside that I had lost it. So I sat there with a few other people, in steel chairs facing a bunch of Cost-co muffins and said, "Those muffins just don't look very good right now, do they?" (in anticipation of giving blood) and a few people laughed.

Someone called for number "34" and no one answered so I said, "Maybe that's me! I think that's me because I lost my number." So they didn't take me and a different guy comes up to me and says he'll take me. I go over to his station and there's a red and black jacket with a green jacket next to it and a bottle of water, and a regular station.

They pricked my finger after entering my name into the system. I came up in the Red Cross system because I've given blood before.

Which reminds me, the head of the Red Cross organization, who gave me the flyer with the ID number on it and then the tag, I asked where he was from. Everyone was from this area originally and the drive came out of Yakima. But the guy had an accent so I asked where he was from. He said he'd done some traveling and picked up an accent. I asked where and he said, "Texas, West Virginia..." and said he must have picked it up somewhere. I said I wanted to volunteer possibly and how should I be in touch, and he gave me his name. He also wanted me to sign in and told me to write down "military time" when no one else was writing down military time. The other women said it was fine if I just put down the regular time.

So I was then in the room where one donates blood, and at station 5. I was told, after my name came up and I was being entered into the system, that my iron came up too low in iron. I said, "Oh! that's strange, because I have been eating a lot of meat and oatmeal and cheese and eggs..." It came up in their machine as 11.7. So he told me I could either try some other time, or have another woman test, on my other finger because it might be different on the other hand. I said okay I would do that. So she comes along and does it and it comes up 11.5. Which is too low, but then she couldn't even get the computer to work. She said something was wrong with it or it was acting up.

Next, she printed out a flyer which I had to sign, showing I had been "deferred". I noticed the ID number for the batches taken today was different from the ID number that had been assigned to MY name.

Lordy lordy, must I die? This is just unbelievable.

So I had this very odd feeling that for some reason, my blood was NOT wanted. Then, when I saw the different ID number on the formal page, I said out loud to her, "Could I get a copy of this for my records?" and she told me no, that they couldn't make copies. So I said, "Well could you print out another copy of this same page?" and she said no, the system didn't allow it but she would get a supervisor to double check. She then left, dropping behind one of her purple plastic gloves on the floor, and I wrote down the information from the form that I signed. Oh, first, before she left I said, "So I should just call for a copy to be mailed to me?" and she said yes. I said, "So what is this number for?" and pointed out the ID number and she said it was for the Identification of the batch. I said, "Oh, so this is the number for all of the people who donated blood today?" and she said yes. So it was made very clear that the number on that page was the official batch number.

That number? Was different from the one they wanted to assign to me individually, well but still as the "Drive Number". On my piece of paper I was given, with a drive number already on it, it was listed next to "Drive number". The number that was on the official page which printed out, for the day's batches, the official drive number there was: 255205.

I have two different forms which were given to me that had hand-written Drive ID numbers of 255172. But the one for everyone in the computer which came out on the deferral sheet, was 255205. It was different.

I wondered why.

I also looked at, and made note of the blood value, which was coming up under hemoglobin instead of hemocrit. I asked why hemoglobin instead of hemocrit and was just told they didn't even do hemocrit anymore, they only tested for hemoglobin.

She said was I close to my period, which anyone and their mother, if they really wanted to know, could figure out I think, based on how I've talked about how my period falls at such and such a time and how I have a migraine beforehand. I said yes, I was close to my period, but that I hadn't actually started. I hadn't lost any blood, so why would I be low in iron. She said my body was just sucking it out of me to store up. I suppose so, but I wondered, after she had computer problems, and after seeing the Drive IDs didn't match, I just wondered if I went to a different clinic that didn't know me at all, if my iron would still be low.

It was a good excuse not to take my blood at least. I mean, probably easier to make a non-issue, than designating my blood with a different ID than everyone else had.

I personally do not believe my blood would have been given to anyone. I think someone believes there might be something wrong with it and why would anyone think this unless they had knowledge of something that has happened which would affect my blood quality?

Or, it was some other point? I don't know what. I know some people have noticed how I will sometimes sum up numbers to see what the total is, in a kind of code. For example, 37 I might add up to "10" and I guess if someone thought I would do that, I would come up with, out of 255172, "22". An interesting coincidence is that the sum of the actual ID number would be "19" and for whatever reason, as I was walking to the college to give blood, this woman was walking in front of me slowly, with a sweatshirt that had the number "19" on it.

That last part is definitely a stretch and I don't know why anyone would try to play mind games, but I felt more than anything, someone wanted a way to separate and designate my blood differently from the regular batch.

The whole thing was weird. Weird, because it wasn't being done with anyone else. On the day before when I walked in, just dropped by, I was given a blank form, like everyone else. But after I made an appointment and was coming back the next day and was down for an appointment, suddenly today there were prepared forms with hand-written ID numbers for me which did not match the official number to the day's batch.

If I had not been deferred, would someone have been able to enter in the other number that I was given, into the computer? Is it possible? If not, what was the point then?

The name of the chair who is from here but been to "Texas, West Virginia" whatever, is: Kellie Skaggs, and he is the chairperson for the drive.

What is odd is that my father had a CD in the red and green bin he had of items in the sideseat of the car, with the title "Randy Skaggs" and then I was taken to the far corner of the room to have the needleprick done, and there was more red and green stuff with a blue and white water bottle on top of the items, and two different people went over there to adjust things. I am sure this coincidental, of COURSE, but it's still odd that Skaggs kept coming up.

The other two physical examiners were:
Doug McDonald, ID # 731, and
Luanne Hudspeth, ID # 203.

Then, I met this other supervisor who looked familiar somehow. He said he lived in Spokane or grew up there and was very close to the Canadian border, and said right across from Bonner's Ferry, where my grandpa used to live. He said he had a relative, brother or uncle or Dad or someone, who also worked as a fire ranger, he told me, for 3 1/2 years, up at a look out.

I thanked everyone and walked out, sans muffin, (haha) and the Skaggs guy and the other women interrupted to ask if everything checked out fine or worked out well or something. I said, "Yes, thanks," and went into the bathroom and thought, I am living around a bunch of serious weird-os.

Skaggs wore solid black, the woman next to him wore blue and then the one on the end wore red.

Lordy, lordy, must I diiiiieeee?

I can't wait for the next one! I'd better start taking blackstrap molasses and stocking up on protein (even though I personally think my iron might be fine and I was just checked for anemia and other things and there was no low level). I want to give blood as much as I can now! I wonder what new fascinating thing I'll discover next time. Next time, send someone with integrity to take my blood, and have it analyzed first, and maybe someone from an international agency too.