I am not in a giving vein today

About 25 years or so ago, I started donating blood at least twice a year. This was the result of the Hospital at the University of Penn taking my dying 33 year old brother as a charity case and my wanting to do something to pay them back. [Some other time I will go into Bill's story.]

I found out my blood type the morning after I gave birth to my daughter... You see, I'm B negative, which is apparently a somewhat rare type. I had heard scary things about RH negative moms and freaked out when the doctor casually mentioned it. He calmed me down and said it just meant I needed to have a shot after each delivery and get extra blood tests during subsequent pregnancies to make sure the baby and I weren't harming each other. I followed orders and both kids were fine. It wasn't til I started donating that I discovered I had a rare blood type.

Like I said, I donated at least twice a year for quite some time [you have to wait at least 56 days between each donation]. I was pleased to be able to do some small thing to help others; even when the pre-donation screening and questionnaires got longer and more "invasive." The stuff they ask!!

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to donate as much lately. You see my fibromyalgia [or maybe it's the lack of good sleep]seems to have wreaked havoc with my immune system and I catch all kinds of colds and bugs. I think I spend about 12 days out of every 30 fighting off something. Not fun. It's bad enough that I fell crummy so much of the time, but now I can't do one of the small things to help others that gave me so much pleasure.

So, I'm asking you to please step up and donate if your eligible--it doesn't hurt and you'll really feel good afterwards. Plus, you get free cookies and juice.