As I mentioned yesterday, I’m going to be writing about different things each day of the week to break it up a little bit and to help me come up with topics to help you waste your time at work with. Since today is Tuesday, I’m going to talk about either an issue that’s important to me, or I’m going to tell an anecdote about something from my past. Today, it’s an issue that’s important to me — donating blood. I’m writing about it today because that’s what I’ll be doing at 5 p.m.
I’m actually donating platelets, and I can’t really give you a good scientific explanation of what that means. I know that it takes a little longer than whole blood (90 minutes instead of 20 minutes) and it grabs a different part of the blood. Whole blood is just straight-up blood. Platelets are something else, and I’m not exactly sure what, but I know they go to help leukemia patients undergoing chemotherapy.
I’m going to back up a little bit and explain how I got started doing this. I hate needles and I hate blood. I get queasy talking about either. My dad donated platelets for years, but I never did, because I couldn’t imagine the thought of the needles.
Last year, though, I decided I would change that. I have an uncle who died of leukemia on July 27, 2004, and I figured I’d donate blood on July 27 last year in his honor. So I did. I was a big ol’ baby about the needles, but it was mission accomplished. I went back agin in September (you can only go every eight weeks or so) and donated again.
I had to switch over to platelets this year, though. It takes your body about five weeks to be fully recovered from whole blood, which would be fine if I was training. But not when I’m racing. Platelets only take about 48 hours until you’re back to full strength. Either way, you have to take 24 hours off from exercising, so I’ll take a rest day tomorrow. But I’ll be 100 percent for Pasadena on Sunday. And my donation will go to somebody like my Uncle Bob, who inspired me to do this. I figure that’s appropriate.
My dad doesn’t get to donate any more because he’s had cancer twice since 2004, so they won’t take him in. I’m sure he’s probably glad I’ve picked up the torch from him. I think it’s pretty obvious with what I’m doing with Operation Jack, that I have a body that works fairly well and I’m really starting to like making small, temporary sacrifices to use it to help others.
I guess the point I’m making is that if any of you don’t donate blood and have ever thought of it, or even if you haven’t thought of it, please give it one try! It’s not as bad as you think (believe me, nobody could possibly hate needles any more than me) and it’s really a wonderful feeling to selflessly help somebody else. Plus, there’s the free cookies when you’re done!
If you’ve been meaning to schedule an appointment, please do so! If you’re going to try this for the first time, please let me know.
Take care and have a great Tuesday, everybody!
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