After about 5-10 minutes, your blood donation bag will be full. You'll know when you're finished because the hook on which the bag is hanged drops when the bag reaches a certain weight. The technician will also alert you when you're done and instruct you to stop squeezing your fist.

The technician will then remove the tourniquet, hold the gauze on your arm and pull out the needle. That part really doesn't hurt too much. You'll then be told to apply pressure to the gauze and raise your arm above your head. This is to allow the blood to begin to clot over the wound. After a bit, the technician will ask you to lower your arm and the area will be checked to make sure it has begun to clot. Next it will be swabbed and a stretchy gauze will be wrapped around your arm to apply pressure. You must keep this gauze on a minimum of 4 hours. If it's removed prematurely, the wound can begin to bleed again.

At any point during donation and soon thereafter, you may go into shock. This has happened to me about 35% of the time. The symptoms are always the same: you start to sweat; your hearing starts to fade; and you get tunnel vision. Once you begin to feel the slightest of these symptoms, alert a technician because there's no going back once you've started to go into shock. The technician will put cold compresses on you to bring you back out of shock. You may even pass out but not for very long. To prevent going into shock, make sure you drink plenty of water on the day of donation and remain as relaxed as possible with your legs uncrossed while you are giving blood.