Anyone who knows me in my pre-baby life, knows that I’m terrified of all things medical…veins, blood, needles, all of it. In middle school, I even got to opt out of things like disecting a frog because I would literally barf and pass out. Then I had kids, and now I can handle anything…ANYTHING! I’ve been poked and prodded, had many major surgeries and even used my body to absorb projectile vomit MANY times.
So, all of that is to say that I’ve definitely never donated blood…until today. Back in February, one of my very best friends almost died giving birth. She had a very scary pregnancy after many losses and was on bed rest pretty much the whole time. It was a miracle when she made it to 26 weeks, then a miracle when she made it to 32 weeks and then when she had her healthy, perfect baby boy on her planned c-section date at 38 weeks, it was honestly unbelievable. Her health went downhill shortly after the birth, and she hemorrhaged and bled out twice. No one knew that she had something called Placenta Accreta, and she had to have two full blood transfusions. She almost died (twice), and another miracle…she was at the right hospital at the right time and they had enough blood to save her life. If she had been at a different hospital, things could have been very different. Luckily, she was so high risk that she had a team of all the best doctors ready to go.
So, I donated blood today for the first time. I’ve been talking about doing this since February, but in the last week I heard two similar stories that happened to friends of friends, and I realized that I needed to finally just do it. Honestly, it was NO BIG DEAL. 
It took 4 minutes and 58 seconds for me to donate 1 pint of blood. What if I can help save someone else’s best friend/mom/sister/wife with that blood? I’m doing this every 8 weeks from now on and seriously, so should you. Go to www.redcrossblood.org to find a blood drive in your area.
