Having a blood transfusion:

When you have been scared of blood all your life that you just see a little bit and was like oh my god BLOOD!

That was pretty much me. When I was first admitted till now and will continue to have blood transfusions.  I'm still having blood products and will proberly for the rest of my life. 

without having a blood transfusion when I need one means I feel tired, sleepy, lethargic, you even get headaches, nose bleeds, and more. The only thing is that when I have ANY blood products it MUST BE irradiated blood unless it's a situation where I need a emergancy blood transfusion on the side of the road I can have normal blood given to me but once I get to the nearest hospital I have to be given irradiated blood to replace it as normal blood can now make me extremly poorly and could actually kill me, this is what will have to happen for the rest of my life from the first time I had a blood transfusion.

If you need a blood transfusion it's because you have a shortage of red blood cells.

What is irradiated blood I think you are asking: 

Irradiated blood is blood that has been treated medically by radiation it's to prevent Transfusion-Associated- Graft-versus-host Disease.  

Having a blood transfusion: 

Some people find when they have their 1st blood transfusion choose to cover up so they cannot see the blood nurses can do this if you ask as it can make you feel queasy looking at a load of blood if your not used to it. I choose to not have it covered as I thought if I dont get used to it now I never will. Before you start the transfusion they may take a blood test to see what blood type you are, they check your observations ( blood pressure, oxygen, tempeture, etc). If you have a tempeture you cannot have the transfusion untill its cone down. Once everything is checked and okay they scan your hospital wrist band and there ID badge, they then scan places on the bag of blood, and ask you to confirm a few questions, then they connect you to the bag of blood by a hickman line/picc line/canula lemin and connect it to a electric drip stand and they set the drip stand to do the transfusion for however long ( it could be 1hour or it could be 4hours depending how big the bag of blood is etc). Sometimes you need more than one bag and you have them one after the other. Once connected the nurse checks your ok tells you to ring using your call bell if you feel strange or funny, and then she leaves. Then while you have the transfusion about every 15mins/30mins/1hour they come and check your okay and they check your observations.