I Saved Three Lives Yesterday - What Did You Do?

Yesterday Cindy and I took time out of our frantic, busy lives to donate blood. Unfortunately, the dirty, rotten Puddle Jumpers have passed on some sort of bug to her, resulting in a fever that kept her from donating, but she'll be back in a week or so!

I've managed to dodge the little germ-bombs so far, so the good folks at Cascade Regional Blood Services was more than happy to relieve me of a pint of my finest blood.

There was a time that I thought I'd never give blood. I thought the very notion of it was far too terrifying, so no way was somebody sticking a needle in me!

Shortly after I graduated High School, my sister Janice (you may know her as Janice Head) began working as a phlebotomist (fancy word for person who delights in sticking needles in the arms of the innocent) at the Bellevue office of the Puget Sound Blood Center. For months she nagged, prodded, and occasionally attempted to encourage me to donate blood. I was steadfast and immovable against the idea!

Then a perfect storm of events cropped up that changed my thinking. I was working in the warehouse/office of Silver Platters, and the whole office decided to take a field trip to go give blood. It just so happened that the day all my co-workers chose to bleed for humanity, was also Janice's last day on the job there.

That made her prodding and nagging far more effective, plus she had the peer pressure factor on her side.

The day and time came, we headed over to the blood center, and Janice was, I think, more than a little shocked to see that I had actually shown up. Since it was her last day, and I was her little brother, everyone there made sure that I wound up being poked by her. The whole time she worked there, she would look at my arms and say "Oh, you have GREAT veins!" and things like that. I am VERY glad to have "great veins" because it turns out that makes the whole process MUCH more enjoyable. That was a good thing, because while I was cool on the outside, on the inside I was a complete scaredy cat!

Janice did a great job, and I had to admit that I suffered little, if any pain. From that point on, I have tried to give blood regularly. I'm not as good about it as I should be, but I definitely give several times a year, and it feels great to help out the community.

Each donation can help up to three recipients. That's a HUGE return on the investment of a little discomfort!!

Plus, you get to choose obnoxiously bright arm-bandages to ensure you don't keep bleeding when the draw is complete. Last night, I chose bright green with smiley faces!



I always try to choose the bright, loud colors, because I am truly proud to take part in such an important, and EASY process that does so much good in society. People often ask what happened when they see the bandage, and I tell them that I gave blood and they should too.

I don't know how many people I've actually convinced to do it, but my hope is that I've at least helped the cause for more donors at least a little...

So, help me help the cause! Find the Donation Location near you and give! You'll be glad you did!!

(plus, you can post pictures of yourself with a fluorescent bandage on - that's gotta be worth SOMETHING!)

Oh yeah, after I gave blood, Janice tried pulling a prank on me... She called me up and said that my blood type was (something) and that since Mom was (something else) and Dad was (still another something) that there was NO WAY they could be my parents... and that I was adopted. Unfortunately for her little trick, there were two things that kept it from being effective: (1) I had joked for many years that I was adopted, so it really wasn't that big of a stretch, or a blow to me, and (2) I was just too dumb about the ways of blood types to even get what she was saying!