Giving

Yesterday was the district wide blood drive.  Son #1 had done his "little physician" homework assignment, and tried to recruit ten donors.  He was excited because his dad and I were both donating, his dad for the first time ever.  For many years, hubby was a medical deferral as far as New York Blood Services was concerned, because he had been taking insulin made from pork and beef.  Now that he is using strictly the genetically engineered insulin products, and his blood sugar is under constant control, he was given the thumbs up to donate.

He had a 4PM appointment and mine was at 5PM, so I anxiously looked for his car when I arrived.  He was still there, having finished but still reclining on the lounge chair bed.  The drive chairperson let me go over to check on him.  They kept him for a little while because he'd felt slightly lightheaded afterwards.  But as I was going through medical, he was being served juice and cookies.  All turned out well.  One neat thing:  I'd never seen platelet donation machines at a mobile blood drive site before, but yesterday there were two.  One of my neighbors was using one when I arrived for my whole blood donation, and we were able to chit chat.  It only took 40 minutes for her to finish...about half the time I thought it would take.

I was feeling fairly tired at tuck-in time, and Son #1 remarked that it seems to take a lot out of me to donate.  I always do sleep like a rock after donating.  But it's so worth it to save the lives.  My cousin's daughter needed many transfusions while she was alive, fighting her fight with cancer, and I continue to have her in mind.  It should be interesting to see whether hubby continues to donate...at least when prodded by one of the children.