On the way home from the hospital this morning I was listening to the radio. They had a special guest from the blood bank. They were talking about donating blood and how they always need blood but they need it so much more in the summer. People get busy with their family vacations and activities which means a lot less people donate blood. Also, as so many people are outside, enjoying the wildnerness, there are more accidents and an increased need for blood. They figured 1 in 3 people will need blood at least once in their lifetime.

I never thought about donating blood before. My mom is a fanatic about donating but it just wasn't something I wanted to do. Just the thought of having to get hooked up and have them drain your blood was too much for me to think about. Then something happened. K got sick. She needed a little bit of blood during her surgeries, but that's to be expected. Donating blood still didn't cross my mind. Then almost two weeks ago K needed a blood transfusion. Her treatment is obviously killing many cells in her body. Unfortunately, along with the bad cancer cells, it's also attacking her good cells. Her red blood cells were too low so she needed a transfusion. I couldn't believe the difference I saw in her almost immediately. Before her transfusion she was really tired all of the time and didn't want to do much but lay on the couch watching movies. She would also have trouble waking up from her sedation every morning because she was so tired. And trying to get her up first thing in the morning, so she could go in for her radiation treatment, was horrible. I was having to take an ice cube and put it in her shirt. And half the time that wouldn't even faze her because she was so exhausted. Post transfusion she was happy and smiling. She was running all over the place and wanting to go for rides down the halls of the hospital. When we got home she was too hyped up to go to sleep. Good thing it was a Friday night so we could all sleep in the next morning.

Anyway, her transfusion got me thinking. Who knows how many more times she will need to get blood during this journey of hers? How many other kids batteling cancer need transfusions? How many other people, aside from these kids will need blood for other reasons? My baby girl used 200 cc's of blood during her transfusion. That's because she's so small. The bag came with 300 cc's. Obviously they couldn't save the remaining 100 cc's for the next person. So that's 100 cc's that will never be used. That's 100 cc's that someone else needs. So this afternoon, I'm going to head down to the blood bank and donate. It's my first time and I'm pretty nervous. But I just keep thinking, if someone hadn't donated blood my baby girl wouldn't have been able to have her transfusion when she needed it. It's the least I can do. And I'd like to urge everyone to donate blood this summer. It could save someone's life.

1 Comments:

 Sleeping Mommy said...

Before the children I had donated close to five gallons. I always felt so good about giving of myself that way. I miss it. I need to find a way to get back in to do it--perhaps when the kids are in school...

3:31 PM  

Post a Comment