Well actually I'm giving the whole bit, plasma, platelets, while/red cells...for the first time and I'm very excited! Sounds very massochistic, but it's not for the love of pain, it's just that it's taken me so long to become mentally ofe' with it. I've had a mental block about it for so long, but have gradually enabled myslef to overcome it by educating myself more fully on the subject. The history of bloody transfusions is pretty sordid, and the capitalists who have made tones of money at the expense of the health of others makes me scoff, but the process has come a long way over that time. I'm not even sure that I feel donating blood is a part of one's civil duty, who knows I might not even do it again after this. For me it's just the satisfaction that I've overcome the dodgey indoctrinated view that I once had, and that feels pretty darn good, even if needles don't frog
post script: I signed up last week for the organ doner registry too, took me ages to overcome my personal view of the body to be comfortable to sign up:)