I came into work late today not remembering I had a blood drive appointment at 1:30. I saw the reminder note to myself at 1:20 and gunned it to the appropriate building in our complex. I arrived sweating but on-time and was immediately hurried in to make it on time. I sat down, had my blood pressure taken (120/80 in your face obesity!) but was rejected because of my pulse being too high (100 BPM), probably because I’d ran to the building. I was then approached by the coordinator.
Coordinator: Sir, your pulse was too high to donate do you have any conditions that’d cause this?
Me: Not really, I did just run over.
Coordinator: Hm… Have you had a stressful day? There seems to be a lot of stressed people in.
Me: Nope, I just got in, but I did just run over here. If you give me a minute, I’ll be fine.
Coordinator: Do you have a history of a high pulse in your family?
Me: I don’t think so, although I imagine all our pulses go up after running.
Coordinator: Hm… You’ll be ok. I’m going to give you a note that you can’t donate for the day because of your pulse and you should really see a medical professional about that. 100 BPM is not healthy.
Well, I’m glad they’d already taken my pulse and BP as it doubled over the course of her ignoring the fact that I’d just ran to the building. I’d be curious to see if deafness is correlatable to proximity to the end of the work day.