Good morning! Happy Friday!
I hope you have something lovely on the agenda for the next two days. In between your plans this weekend, you should try to find a blood drive!
I haven’t donated since college, but on Tuesday I was driving by my grade school and saw they were hosting a blood drive the next day. I immediately knew I wanted to fit it into my schedule.
Donating blood is a great thing. I was surprised to read that while 97 percent of people will need blood by the age of 75, only 5 percent actually donate. To me, that’s just awful. Come on people!!
If you’ve never given blood before, it’s pretty simple. You read a bunch of material about blood donation, then answer a bunch of health questions. Then they prick your finger (which hurts the most) to make sure you have enough hemoglobin to donate. If you do, they lay you out flat and put a needle into your arm to collect the blood; you squeeze a rubber heart every four seconds to keep it flowing. It takes 5-10 minutes. Then they raise your arm for a few minutes and bandage you.
The Red Cross workers take very good care of you; they give you snacks and juice. They totally baby you–this is the best part. Take advantage!
And then it’s on with your life! Some people handle it better than others. It can make you feel lightheaded or dizzy, but it really depends on the person. It’s not something you can do pre-workout or pre-binge drink though.
My experience donating yesterday was good! They tested my hemoglobin in my left hand and it was 0.2 too low. She said they could try the other hand to see if we’d get a higher read. I was skeptical, and thought I was going to be rejected, but it actually worked!
I had to answer a lot of fun questions about my life. It reminded me of this Spartanette post that I wrote in college, which made me laugh to even think about. Then a male tech came over to finish up the question/answer and draw my blood and I got the distinct feeling he wanted to stab me in more ways than one.
Anyway….after I donated I was walking over to the juice station when a girl passed out! Down she went and everyone started calling her name. Such dramatics! I wanted some attention too, but I just sat there snacking on a Luna bar, trying to text message with my good arm. (I hate/love how your arm looks kind of gross the rest of the day!)
I felt fine for the rest of the night, although because I later had two glasses of wine and a beer, I was under the weather on Thursday. That is not the ideal way to refuel. (I did have a lot of water first.) I remember in college one time I drank the day after a blood drive, and I ended up face down next to a bowl of ramen in my dorm at 11 PM. (I had been at a pajama-themed party, and everyone else was wearing cute Pink by Victoria’s Secret boxers and Uggs. I was wearing a negligee. When I called it a night, I looked like a victim on “Law and Order: SVU.”)
If that doesn’t make you want to sign up to donate blood, here are some facts that might….
- One blood donor could save as many as four lives with one donation.
- Patients with sickle cell anemia, cancer, or heart disease may need blood transfusions just to survive.
- Four million people need blood every year—that’s one every 12 seconds.
- Twenty percent of blood used in the U.S. is donated by students.
If you are a healthy individual, 17 years old, and 110 pounds, please consider finding a blood drive! You can find one here. If for some reason you can never donate, you could sign up to work at a drive, providing snacks or checking people in. It requires such little effort and there’s a huge chance that you or someone you love will need blood some day. To me, what goes around comes around. You never know when they day will come that you need donated blood. Open your heart and open your veins.
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