Blood and such
I donated blood for the first time yesterday! A bit of backstory: when I was two years old, I was diagnosed with a rare bleeding disorder. Only one parent had to have the disorder (my mom), but both parents have to carry the gene. I was not allowed to participate in sports or many common things growing up- against doctors' orders. They were always afraid I would get hit or fall and have internal bleeding. No sports. No owning a bicycle. Against the doctors' wishes and after my pleading, my mom did allow me to take gymnastics and acrobatics. Dance was good because it was relatively no-contact and therefore classified as "safe". Absolutely, under no circumstances, was I to have surgery. This was discovered as I was being wheeled back to surgery for a tonsillectomy- one of the doctors literally ran across the hospital to stop the surgeon and told my parents "there's not a doctor in the country who would touch her with a 10-foot pole". And they didn...