At the beginning of 2017, I set a goal to donate blood as many times as possible this year. A healthy person can safely donate blood every 8 weeks or 6 times per calendar year. After the chaos of the holidays subsided, I donated my first pint of the year on January 7, 2017 and 3 more since (so far this year).
When I was a little girl growing up in Richmond, Indiana. My mom and dad gave routinely. At that time, the blood donation center in our community was located in the “old part” of Reid Memorial Hospital — the old Jenkins Hall. That means something to those who also grew up in my community. For those of you who did not, you’ll have to trust me when I tell you it was a beautiful, historic building that fascinated me.
My little brother and I would go with them and play with the toys in the waiting room while they donated. I remember one of the receptionists (though not by name, I can still picture her) and how nice she was to us. She even gave us Nutter Butter cookies — yum!
I have no idea how many gallons they donated between the two of them or how many lives they saved, but by their example, they taught us that it was something worthy of their time.
My First Time
They say you never forget your first time and I certainly will not! I was a senior in high school and had just turned 18 years old. My high school was a residential high school on the campus of Ball State University and there was a campus blood drive. I figured, “why not?” I completed the questionnaire and took my spot on the ergonomic bed. I had never been particularly bothered by needles, but does anyone really like them? They got the needle in my arm and instructed me to squeeze a piece of foam every 3 – 5 seconds.
The tech checked on me periodically, and I felt fine, right up until the moment I didn’t feel fine. She kept asking me if I was feeling nauseous. “No, I replied, “just a little light-headed.”
The next thing I knew, I was waking up. The needle was no longer in my arm and there were cold cloths on my forehead and chest.
So that’s what it felt like to pass out.
It was my first time donating blood and my first time passing out. Neither was all that awful. The good news was they had gotten a full donation.
I Kept Going Back
After that first experience, I went back from time to time to donate, but not religiously or regularly. But every time I went, I left feeling good about myself and thinking about the person who might receive my O+ donation. Would it be a father of young children? Would it be a young child whose parents prayed for a miracle? I’d never know, but knew that I had made a difference for someone. How many things do I do every day that offer me that kind of assurance? Not many.
One struggle I faced whenever I attempted to donate was one that plagues many women of child-bearing age, low iron. Several times, I was deferred, or turned away from donating because my blood iron levels were too low. They were sufficient for me, though barely, but they were not high enough to donate blood. I used that as an excuse, I admit. Why waste my time trying? I’d just be turned away.
Knowing what was one the line and knowing how good I would feel for donating, why didn’t I do it more often? Because I’m busy. You’re busy. Everyone is busy. And that was always my excuse. How could I possibly find an entire hour (possibly even 90 minutes!) every eight weeks to save someone’s life.
Lame.
Donnie’s Fight
Then, a few years ago, we were sitting in Arby’s one night after church and I got a message from my mom that my cousin’s little boy was very sick and had been admitted to the hospital. Little did I realize at the time that the next year and beyond would pit little 3-year-old Donnie in a fight for his life against neuroblastoma, a form of cancer.
During his treatment and illness, he received multiple transfusions. It was during that time that I recommitted myself to donating blood more regularly. One Saturday we were there and as I sat in the refreshment area after donating, I read a flyer with the story of a young lady with sickle cell anemia. I read her story of her condition which frequent blood transfusions. This young lady had become an advocate for blood donation.
Even in the midst of her illness, she found time to do something important. I could find time, too.
My Mission in 2017
So, this year, when I made my “resolutions,” I took a different approach. Like so many others, my annual resolutions routinely included things like losing weight, exercising more, eating better, etc. Most of my resolutions focused on myself — how I could make my life better, improve my health, improve our finances, etc.
But in 2017, I made a resolution to improve the lives of others. One of the resolutions was to donate blood as many times as I could during the year. After my first donation in January, I set reminders on my calendar and made plans to be there every 8 weeks. My husband David has gone with me every time, too — it’s something we do together for other people.
After donating, they put a bandage on your arm and recite a list of follow-up instructions — don’t overexert yourself, drink plenty of fluids, etc. Last time we donated, David removed his bandage much too soon after we returned home. I asked him, “Didn’t they tell you to leave that on for 6-8 hours?”
He replied, “I don’t know. All I heard was, ‘don’t skip meals.'”
God love him.
This last weekend, he and I kept our fourth appointment of the year. On this occasion, one of the phlebotomists walked over to my station while I was squeezing and bleeding into the bag and said, “I just wanted to come and say hi to you!” She recognized me and we chatted for a while. It was nice to be recognized — not gonna lie!
It might also be possible that she recognized me because the second part of my resolution. I also decided that I would wear a Wonder Woman shirt every time I donated. When am I more a super hero than when I am literally saving a life? lt just feels right AND it’s a good excuse to buy Wonder Woman shirts.
She remembered what I had said in January — every 8 weeks! One of the other technicians joined in our conversation and she asked me what prompted me to do it. I shared with her much of what I’ve written here. She told me that they never have enough supply and can always use more donors. She shared with me about her friend who is an emergency physician at Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis, IN. Sometimes, her friend is placed in a situation where she has two patients who need blood and only enough supply for one of them. She has to make terrible decisions about who has the greater need or, worse yet, who has a better chance of surviving? Did I mention that is at a children’s hospital?
Nobody should ever have to make a choice like that. And there are enough healthy, qualified donors that there’s no excuse for a shortage.
DONATE BLOOD! You can make more!
I understand there are people who are disqualified from donating by such things as health conditions, prescription medications, or because they lived in other countries for a period of time.
But if you are not automatically excluded, then I encourage you to commit to donating every eight weeks! There are benefits to you besides the knowledge that you have given the gift of life to someone (as if that is not enough!)
- You get a mini physical — they take basic vitals like blood pressure, pulse, and temperature. They check your hemoglobin levels (iron) and a few days after your donation, you can find out your cholesterol numbers. And it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg — just a pint of your blood!
- It’s free. I am not independently wealthy. I don’t have a lot of disposable income that I can donate to charity, no matter how worthy the cause. But it costs me nothing monetarily to donate blood. It costs me about 60 minutes of my time at most. During that time, I can lounge, read a book, play on social media, or visit with the technicians or other donors. In this case, the gift I give is exponentially more valuable than what it costs me. Where else can you get that kind of return on your donation?
- It motivates you to take care of yourself. As I mentioned, I was refused many times because my iron was low. I should care about that not just because of giving blood, but for my own health! After consulting with my physician, I started taking a daily iron supplement. My levels are monitored not only every 8 weeks, but a couple of times a year, more extensively, by my doctor. I have been in a much healthier range for the last couple of years. I used to take a supplement for a few days prior to donating — that doesn’t cut it. I was advised by my physician to take it daily for maximum effectiveness. I also try to eat foods that are high in iron, like spinach. Red wine was also recommended as a way to get my iron levels up. I’m not a drinker, but if you want a good excuse to have a daily glass of wine, there you go! I also learned that iron is better absorbed when taken with vitamin C, so I take it with a vitamin C tablet or with orange juice. On the other hand, iron is less efficiently absorbed when taken with calcium, so I try to take my iron tablet at least a couple of hours before or after having anything with calcium. And it has worked for me! I haven’t been refused in two years!
- It’s an excuse to pamper yourself a little. We know that after giving blood, David and I have a really good reason to take a day (no more!) off of working out to allow our bodies to fully recover. There is also a great little donut shop just down the way from our community blood center, so we have adapted our tradition to get a donut just after our donation. Since, “a pint’s a pound the world around,” it cancels out on the scale! (Or so I like to think.)
- Put yourself on the other side of the donation. Any one of us could be in a car accident or suffer an illness requiring a blood transfusion (or several transfusions). What if there was not enough? And if that isn’t enough motivation for you, what if it that happened to someone you love? What if your spouse, child, or best friend needed the transfusion? I wouldn’t want medical personnel to be put in a position where they had to compromise the care they gave or had to make difficult choices because of a lack of available resources.
- And finally, they do have some incentives and give-aways once in a while for donors. In our area, these have included vouchers for a free car wash, gas cards, a T-shirt, movie theater gift cards, restaurant gift cards, and even a box of Girl Scout Cookies! Usually, these incentives are valued around $10 and are a nice way for them to say, “thank you,” for your time and effort. One time when my husband and I donated blood, we were informed that on that particular day, donors were being given a ticket to a Poison and Def Leopard concert the coming weekend. We like the music, but normally, we wouldn’t buy tickets to attend such a concert. But these tickets were FREE, so we figured, “why not?” We went to the concert and had a wonderful time! We gave two pints of blood and got a free date night and a lasting memory. Not a bad deal at all if you ask me.
Don’t Stop There
There is more you can do to help others besides donating blood. Donating a pint of blood every eight weeks is more than most do and is certainly a good place to start, but consider some of these as well.
- Donate platelets. This is a more time-consuming process than donating whole blood. Start to finish, it takes about three hours. Platelets, like blood, are in constant demand, especially for cancer treatment. While donors can only donate blood every eight weeks, you can donate platelets every seven days, up to ten times per year. I confess, I have not donated platelets and the idea of giving three hours of my time every seven days is more than I’ve committed to yet, but even if I did it only once a month, I could have a huge impact on others. There is no requirement that you give that often, but it is certainly appreciated! You can read more about PLATELET DONATION here, on the Amercian Red Cross website.
- Be the match. Register with the National Blood Marrow Donation registry. When you sign up, you will be sent a kit and instructions to easily collect a sample of your DNA from the inside of you cheek. Your profile is kept in the registry and you could potentially offer a life-saving marrow transplant to someone with a life-threatening blood cancer, like leukemia or lymphoma.
- Be an organ donor. In the state of Indiana, we are able to indicate a desire to be an organ donor when getting or renewing a driver’s license. If I lost my life to an accident or sudden illness, I’d like to think that my organs might help others. After all, I’m certainly not going to need them where I’m going! Find out how to make your desires known and be sure to tell your loved ones as well. My husband and I have made it very clear to one another our desire to do whatever good we might as our final act before leaving this world. We’ve even had conversations about what we would do if we had the opportunity to help someone while we are still alive. What if someone we knew needed a kidney in order to live? What if a perfect stranger needed one? These are difficult conversations and the answers depend on your individual circumstances, but have you had conversations like this? Have you thought about what you would do? If I had the power to give hope to another human being, I want to believe I would do anything in my power to offer hope.
Join My “Every Eight Weeks” Commitment!
Technology, research, and medical advancements have us living longer lives with a greater quality of life. Even with devastating diagnoses, we have greater hope today than ever before for remission, cure, and long-term survival. But in spite of all the treatment options and medications available to doctors, so much still depends on the kindness of others.
I’m no doctor, but I can save a life.
I’m no millionaire, but I can give a priceless gift.
I’m no saint, but I can be a hero.
So can you. Join me and let me know!