Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Donate blood, Save a Life


Today I received my blood donor card in the mail. I donated blood once in college, and then again a few weeks ago. In college my main motivation to donate blood was for a free t-shirt. This time it was because I figured by my age I should really know what my blood type is, and it’s a good way to figure it out.

By principle, I totally support donating blood. I figure why not? I’ve got plenty of it, it doesn’t harm me to give it, and it helps people in need since there always appears to be a blood shortage. Each time I’ve donated blood, though, there has been a few hiccups along the way. One of my friend’s veins collapsed while she was donating, and she had a bloody bruised arm that I’m sure raised some suspicious eye brows around campus for several weeks. Another friend fainted afterwards. This time, when I donated, I nearly passed out myself, mainly because the nurse draped the tube over my arm and hand while I was donating, and the warm heavy tube got me thinking about the blood draining from my body. In the end I got a little extra pampering from my little woozy spell, and a few more rounds of cookies and juice boxes than everyone else. Not a bad trade off.

I’m a little squeamish about blood. I’m fine as long as I don’t have to watch them put the needle in, or see the tube full of blood. Needles don’t really bother me. I’ve had some piercings, I can handle the little thing the put in your arm. I’ve seen the worst possible cases of donating blood, yet I continue to give.

Why? Because I think it’s the right thing to do. You can donate blood every three months and donate platelets every 3 days. Just don’t go out drinking after you donate. That blood they take out of your body? Yea, it makes you quite a bit less able to process alcohol for a day or so. That could be a risky game.

And now I know. I have B+ blood, which as it turns out is pretty rare. Where do you stack up? On average, 45% of the population is Type O, 40% Type A, 10% Type B and 5% Type AB. To learn more about where and when you can donate blood, check out this website.

2 comments:

fuzzpup said...

I wish I could donate blood but since we still have archaic laws prohibiting gays from donating every time I used to go and try out of principle I would be turned away curtly.
as someone who works in a hospital though (and even within there at an infusion center!) it hits close to home. there will always be a great need for it. keep up the good work :)

Janice said...

That is CRAZY and wrong that there are still laws like that in effect!!I'll definitely keep donating :)

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