Please Take My Blood

My friend Rachel and I have become fairly obsessed with donating blood. Why, you ask, would we be so concerned with donating blood? Well - It's complicated. But I've compiled a short list of reasons that may have contributed.

1. Cookies. You get delicious cookies when you donate blood. I haven't been able to find them anywhere else, so I have to give away my blood to get them. You'd be surprised at what I would do to get a good cookie.
2. The frequent diner card. The Puget Sound Blood Center send you a card with your blood type, and your donation ID after your first successful blood donation. On the back of the card it looks like those frequent diner cards where you get punches for every meal you buy. You buy 10, and then the 11th is free. Well - it's just like that but for donating blood. After 8 donations you have given away a gallon of blood and filled up your card. Awesome!
3. The bet. After Rachel and I got the cards we decided to have a little friendly competition. The first person to give away a gallon of blood and fill up their card wins a gallon of ice cream from the other person. My competitive spirit has really kicked in, and I really want to win.
4. The shiny wall. At the Blood Center they have this wall of fame, and if you donate 100 times you get your name on the gold plaque on the shiny wall. It gives me something to aspire to in life. You can only give blood every 56 days, which means to get up on the wall of fame it would take about 17 years. Quite the commitment.
5. And we are helping to save lives. Perhaps I should have put that one above the cookies and ice cream. Oh well.

So it has become a thing for me and Rachel to give blood together. The only hang up is that they never want to take my blood. I never have enough iron. I've started having to do a blood donation diet to try and up my iron levels. The diet includes doubling up on my vitamins (is that bad?), frosted mini-wheats for breakfast (surprisingly high in iron), spinach salads for lunch, and red meats for dinner (I cooked my first steak!). I also have to make sure I have enough vitamin C because that allows your body to absorb the iron, and that I'm well hydrated (so you don't clot).

Even with the blood donation diet I often don't have enough iron. Last time I had to go three times before the iron level was high enough, and they would take my blood. So imagine my surprise when I went to the blood center yesterday and my iron was high enough on my first try! So was Rachel's! We've probably been to the blood center about 10 times together, but this was the first time we had both been allowed to give blood at the same time. We were very excited.

With yesterday's donation I have now given away a half gallon of my blood. You can only give blood every 56 days, so if all goes well in 8 months I may have won a bucket of ice cream. Woo Hoo! Enjoy the pictures of our blood adventure. And go give blood.