*there's a worthy cause

In honor of Will's OHS, we're having an unofficial, unlocalized (and very unorganized) blood drive. His surgery will require the use of a heart lung machine which has to be primed with blood before the surgery starts. I'm hoping to be able to do a directed donation for this since Will and I have the same blood type.

I should state that there isn't anything about Will's surgery that makes blood donation crucial. I'm not even sure why I had this idea, especially since Will won't actually receive your blood. This is sort of like us knowing a hungry family but asking you all to donate cans to the food bank nearest you for other hungry families. I do think blood donation is an extremely important service that is not very popular. This seemed like as good a reason as any to encourage people to either give it a try or work towards donating their next gallon. 

If you have never given blood or haven't in a long time, here are some fun facts:
*You don't have to know your blood type.
*You can give blood every 56 days. That is up to 6 times per year.
*You can now donate blood when you are as young as 16 years old.
*People with O- blood types are universal donors and anyone can receive their blood.

Here is the breakdown of how blood can be given:

Blood Types:    Possible Recipients:

O                       O, A, B, AB
A                       A, AB
B                       B, AB
AB                    AB

*In my opinion, it is the easiest community service one can do.
*They make you have a snack before you leave! What could be better than that? At my local Red Cross they have cokes, juice and treats like these:

Maybe in Pennsylvania they give out these?

[In searching for that graphic I discovered you can order cases online! I think Chris and I might need to order a taste of PA to help us through the stress of the surgery don't you?]
We have several blog followers in Florida but I don't know the snack cake of choice in that region.

The only requirement for participating is that you do this in honor of Will. His doctor suggested that we not make any requests for other direct donations in case someone is unable to donate for reasons that they would rather not disclose. So there is no need to even let us know if you have donated. If you aren't able to donate for a temporary reason (travel, antibiotics, having a cold) then please try again as soon as you are able. If you aren't able to donate for a permanent reason (travel, health, medication) then please try to encourage someone you know to donate blood on Will's behalf. This can be done with an email to a few friends.

A few more interesting facts:
*Your donation of 1 pint can help up to 3 people.
I was thinking about Children's Hospital and I wonder how many units of blood are given there every day. I read that 1 in every 10 people admitted to a hospital requires blood. Remember that children aren't able to donate blood to replace what they have used...so a children's hospital literally needs our help every day.
*Only 38% of Americans are actually eligible to donate blood and only 8% actually do. This is according to the Red Cross who I will be using for our direct donation.
*This may sound like a cliche but it really does make you a hero.

So start taking your iron pills and eating lots of seafood or steak or raisins! (This means you Liz.)

Remember, and I cannot stress this enough, this is an unofficial blood drive for Will. If you go somewhere to donate and tell them it's for him they will have no idea what you are talking about. This will forever be one of those silent good deeds that remains between you and God. Although telling this story could be a good icebreaker for making conversation to the other donors lying next to you!

While doing my research I came across this statistic: If you began donating blood at age 17 and donated every 56 days until you reached 76, you would have donated 48 gallons of blood, potentially helping save over 1,000 lives! I'm sure that has never happened, but there is an incredible 90 year old woman who has donated more than 25 gallons of blood in her life.

I will write more about this at some point but just wanted to get everyone thinking about it and planning.

I leave you with a picture of Will from our rainy Sunday afternoon.

We see his cardiologist again this week and are hoping by then he has reached 10 lbs. We'll keep you posted!