Saving lives is so easy!
As December was drawing to a close, my husband and I decided to make appointments to give blood. You see, giving blood is never a walk in the park for us. My husband hates giving blood…I usually have to make his appointment for him. The needle terrifies him…actually, he pretty much refuses to look at his arm during the entire process. He’s so jumpy that once, when the technician went to mark his arm for where she planned on placing the needle, he jumped and screamed a little. We normally have to get a group of people to go as a support group for him.
I’m not kidding.
This time when we went in, I asked about donating platelets instead of whole blood…about 10 seconds into the explanation, he went white and got a case of the heebie jeebies.
So, with all of these scary, terrifying things that surround this donation experience, why on earth would I make this man walk into a blood donation center?
Here’s a few reasons why:
1) Every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood.
2) More than 44,000 blood donations are needed every day.
3) The average red blood cell transfusion is approximately 3 pints.
4) The blood used in an emergency is already on the shelves before the event occurs.
5) A single car accident victim can require as many as 100 pints of blood.
6) One donation can save up to THREE lives.
After our donation in December, I realized that we had only donated ONCE on 2012 (compared to FOUR times in 2011). So, my New Year’s resolution is to get my husband in the door at least THREE times this year…just don’t tell him 😉