Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Blood Donation Time

Time to update. Sorry to my two followers for the nearly 30 day lapse.

Today I gave blood to the American Red Cross. This is something I've doing since college between 5 - 6 times a year. I think it is an easy way for me to do something for someone else. I am very fortunate in that I have really good blood. I'm A+, so it's not a rare type or anything, but it only takes me about 5 minutes once they start to donate my pint. I've lost track of the number of times I've donated, but I think I'm up to about 8.5 gallons. Keep in mind that the average person has 10 pints of blood in their body, so doing the math - I've given enough blood to fill up over 6 people!

I understand that some people, like my Beth, can't give due to medical reasons while other people don't give because they are afraid of needles, especially in the arm. I don't mind that - what REALLY makes me cringe is the finger stick. They can stick me in the arm all they want, but that 1/2 second poke of the razor sharp edge pin just to get a drop of blood almost makes me want to cry. Okay, not really, but it hurts. In fact, it usually gets the band-aid treatment for a couple of days, meanwhile the hole in my arm gets nothing.

The best part of donating, other than helping save lives, is having to sit and eat a snack afterward. My favorite snack of all is the Nutter Butter cookie. In fact, I'd donate once a week if I was able to, just to get the yummy peanut butter sandwich (and to save more lives, of course.) I also tend to take a few extra cookies with me so I can munch for the rest of the day. Yeah, I know, that's probably not right seeing how the American Red Cross is a non-profit organization and all, but hey - I just gave a 10th of my blood supply.

On a final note, the American Red Cross has a new program through their NASCAR® Racing team where you can create teams and earn points toward prizes as your team gives blood (or attempts to give.) If you are interesting in joining Team "Houstons Problem", then head over to Red Cross Racing and join my team. My team code is: EM985HO