My first blood donation: I was a freshman in college, and it got me hooked on a lifetime of regular contributions. I started out with whole blood, which I donated for a good part of my life, not quite every two months like clockwork, but close. More like a clock that worked most of the time.
Then, a handful of years ago, I was recruited to be a platelet donor. "Come and give every three weeks instead of every eight!," they said. "Spend three hours with us instead of 40 minutes!," they said. What a deal! I couldn't refuse.
Seriously, I couldn't. I know how important platelets are, and not just from the stats I've been given - from people I know and love. I've written before about how I learned from one friend, when her tiny son was fighting t-cell leukemia, that platelets are often scarce, and sometimes units had to be split between children who needed them. Two friends this summer were in need of a solid platelet supply: one to fight a near-fatal bacterial infection, and one who is battling cancer (and will continue to need them). So I gladly visit my platelet nurses on a regular basis. Mit, Chamberlain, Manuel, Hannah, Vanessa, Alberto...they've become pals, and I feel like I'm in an episode of Cheers when I walk in and hear them call my name. (Except they take fluids instead of serve them. It would be much more fun to go there and drink beer every three weeks. Mmmmm. Beer. But I digress.)
On my last platelet visit, a few weeks ago, I quietly celebrated my 100th donation. I liked reaching that landmark - I'd been paying more attention to the numbers this year as I got closer to The Big One. It feels good, like having a silver dollar in my pocket when I was a kid: substantial and special; something I earned and could be proud of. And this weekend, I started on my second hundred: for all the moms and dads sitting worried by their little ones' bedsides; to pay it forward for the friends who might need them someday; for a range of other reasons...and because it's the right thing to do.
A colleague wrote me a text about this, when I told her I had just hit 100. She said, "Think of all those people out there walking around with a part of you in them." I never looked at it that way; at the sheer volume of individuals I don't know and will never meet who are forever linked to me, and I to them, because of this opportunity that came my way. It's nice, that thought. It's going to make the second hundred even better than the first.
© 2015 A Bit of Brie/Anitabrie
