At the beginning of February I donated blood.  The whole thing started out as a bit of a CF.  I showed up to donate on the wrong day first, and had already cleared my calendar.  On the day I actually was supposed to donate I was rather busy, but of course I still went.

As I was going through all of the normal prep work, the gentleman I was getting screened by asked what my schedule looked like that day.  He was a bit of a unique individual so I really wasn’t sure where he was going with it.  Then he explained.  They had a drastically low shortage of red blood cells-pure cells.  From what I understand, you can donate blood and that’s awesome, but for patients who are suffering from cancer, blood disorders etc what they really need are the red blood cells.  While they can pull red blood cells from “regular donations” they don’t get as many or apparently the same quality.  The downside is it takes about an hour vs 15 mins.

Now, you may recall the last time I tried doing this it ended VERY badly. And while I wasn’t looking forward to the idea of exceptional pain I thought about my mom, and baby Kate, baby Trip and baby Theo and knew there was no choice. 

Luckily we were much more successful than last time, and they got a full donation without excruciating pain (albeit a fair amount of anxiety).  I said I little prayer of safety for my blood cells and for the recipient(s) and went on my way.

Tonight, this card came in the mail.  And you know what?  It was so worth it.