Last Friday, I made my bi-monthly visit to the blood suckers at the American Red Cross Blood services. (On a side note: I just finished the last book in the Twilight vampire series, Breaking Dawn. It was magnificent!) I donated my 12th pint of blood!
Here's the number to call to make your own appointment to donate.
I had a record time; it took me just slightly over 6 minutes to fill my bag. To my credit I drank nearly 3 liters of water the day before, so my blood was very viscous.
I brought the boys with me and they played in he enclosed area in the background. I turned on the movie "Babe" but it didn't hold their attention any more then it held mine.
I am not sure who has heard my life-saving blood experience with blood, platelets, to be exact, but I thought it might be a good time to share the story.
Once upon a time, when I was 9 mos pregnant with Timmy, I developed preeclampsia. Because I was full-term, they induced my labor, but after 12 hours of labor, I was not progressing, and my platelet count was dropping. (Platelets clot your blood.) The doctor was worried that if I labored too much longer I wouldn't have any success, so he scheduled an emergency C-section.
Talk about shock. In a state of total disbelief I asked Troy and his dad, Brad, to administer a blessing before the operation. The delivery went well, Timmy was born and very healthy, and I was exhausted. However, my platelet levels continued to drop, so I received a transfusion. A normal range for platelets is about 250,000. My count was about 40,000. We didn't realize until later how terrified we should have been, but, it was life-threatening. The technical name is HEELPS syndrome.
Well, I am leaving out all gory and boring details, but, the story had a very happy ending. We got our Timmy boy out of the deal!! Now we are working on the "all living happily ever after."
The Happy Miracle Boy!
His brother arrived much more traditionally, with less scare. (Notice I chose "less scare" not "no scare") They both love going to the "blood store" and all the employees and volunteers are so patient and kind. When Spencer was only 6 weeks old I donated for the first time since becoming pregnant with Timmy. The nice ladies there took great care of him while I was in the screening and donating process. They both love the pretzels, oreos and juice they get after I finish.
If you have never donate, I would strongly encourage you to. I don't know whose blood saved my life, but I will never forget the selflessness and will continue to make my donation every 8 weeks.
6 years ago
