Sunday Bloody Sunday II

What a great week for bleeding contestants!!!

Here's our first bleeder of the week: Karen at Suburban Correspondent who forgot to take the photo at the blood center but her hubby took a pic of her arm at home, and yes, Suburban Correspondent, that's good enough for Manic Mom--I believe you! Manic: So, Suburban, tell me about the experience?

Suburban: My people weren't as friendly as yours, but it's sort of a big, semi-urban center that I went to. And they only had those fake Chips Ahoy, the cracker-type ones that come in the 100-calorie packs.

Manic: Which would have been good for me and my point counting! BTW, I'm down 11.2 pounds as of Saturday! Guess the haircut paid off!

Suburban: Look, we're talking blood here, not your haircut. Enough with the hair already! So, the orange juice was good. And I got a bunch of knitting done while I was waiting, and some reading, too. Definitely a positive experience. I talked about it in my post today over at my blog, The More The Messier.

Manic: Thank you Suburban Correspondent for donating your beautiful blood!!! Everyone, stop by Karen's blog and tell her what a wonderful person she is for saving some lives!

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And here's the Speedy Bleeder Sarah, good friend to Melissa at Hope for the Hopeless, and yes, remember, you can also submit your blood donating photo over to Melissa's blog to win a $25 gift card to either Outback or Lonestar!

Sarah said this:

"Here's my photo. Yes, it was taken with a cheesy camera phone, and YES, I look like an idiot."Manic: Sarah! NO! YOU DON'T LOOK LIKE AN IDIOT! YOU LOOK LIKE A LIFE-SAVER!

Sarah: But I did it!! WOOOHOO!

Manic: Yes you did! Let's do the Cyber-life-saving-blood-donating-happy-dance!

Pause to dance. Really, stop what you're doing cuz I am dancing. And it's a fun and quirky dance, and I'm in Mr. Manic's longjohns looking completely silly but hey, it's fun! Maybe it's a youtube dance waiting to debut?

Sarah: It's been ten years since I last donated!

Manic: Ten years! Think of the lives! Well, you're here now! You've donated! You're back in the donating club! They've got your number now! You know in exactly like five weeks they'll be calling you to remind you that you need to go back in three weeks to donate again!

Sarah: It was about time and it took just seven minutes to fill up that bag. The lady was like, "Hey, it's still really warm!"

Then Sarah and I started talking about warm blood and how it can be used for so many other things and we suggested like heating pads and Sarah came up with this great new marketing ploy:

"Have horrible periods and suffer from horrendous cramps? Try our new Life Juice Heat Pads! Available in two different varieties! Whole or Plasma!"

TOTALLY CRACKING UP!

THE BLEEDER HEATER!!!

Manic: Gotta love some warm speedy blood!... Eewwwww! Warm blood... but for a great cause. You know somebody's going to be loving that blood, and someone else is going to be loving that person who is ALIVE because of that warm blood you gave!

Thank you Sarah!

And Sarah sent me another update to let me know that she has already booked her next donating appointment and she has joined the Brighten Life program to commit to donating quarterly now!

YAY Sarah! You go Speed Bleeder you!

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And then I got this GREAT email from Machelle, who donated, and I remember Machelle from a long while ago, and I remembered because her name is spelled so uniquely. This is what she wrote to me:

Yeah!!!!!!!!!! I donated blood today. I have posted before here, my now nine-year-old daughter went through 2-1/2 years of chemo for ALL leukemia. She is doing great now and is over three years off treatment. But if it wasn't for the blood tranfusions she received while on chemo she would not be here now. I was not planning on donating today. I went on a field trip with my two daughters (one in second grade and my nine-year-old is in fourth grade). After the field trip I had about three hours to kill before I had to pick them up from school. So here I am riding around just trying to find something to do and I ride by this blood bank/donation bus. So I turned around and gave. I barely made the hgb level but I feel great for giving. It has been a while since I have donated.

Get out there and save a life. Actually the lady at the blood bank/bus said three people benefit from one donation.

Hugs,
Machelle

Machelle--thank you so much for this email--hearing stories like yours are the ones that make me feel that the time and effort I'm spending on this mini-crusade is sooo worth it, and I know the others who have donated are feeling great to know that there are real people out there who are personally touched by their donations! Thank you, and may God continue to bless you and your daughter!!!

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And from another beautiful bleeder, Kay:

Here you go Stephanie!! I did it and thanks so much for encouraging others to give blood. I'm going to share my experience on my blog and hopefully get some people to give too!

It was so easy! The needle prick hardly hurts at all and really I think the finger one they do is worse than the arm one! I'm going to try to make it a regular thing in my life. What could be better than giving someone something money can't buy? Now that's a pay it forward!

Kay! THANK YOU!!! I love it! Your smile is infectious!!

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Bev: Hi Manic Mommy! I found your blog via Melissa at Hope for the Hopeless, (and I've seen you comment on various other blogs) and have lurked for a while but have never commented. Sorry 'bout that!

Manic: First of all, never apologize for lurking and not commenting! I know how crazy it gets, and I'm a huge lurker too!

Bev: I love that you are encouraging people to donate blood! I used to donate quite regularly.

Manic: Me too, but that tattoo of mine, well, I kinda forgot to keep donating after I got that.

Bev: My younger brother was diagnosed with testicular cancer about 5-1/2 years ago and when he started chemo, I decided to donate platelets - not to be donated to him, just because it made me realize the need for that. I came extremely close to passing out when I donated. For some stupid reason, I did not donate blood or platelets after that.

Manic: I don't think that was a stupid reason, I think you were just really scared of passing out--that's a legitimate reason!

Bev: So I haven't donated in five years after doing so regularly for a long time. I have no explanation! However, your contest encouraged me to start again and I will continue donating regularly even when there's no contest going on. I've attached my picture from when I donated this past Tuesday, January 22, 2008. My co-worker thought I was crazy for asking her to take a picture. I tried to get three other people to go with me: one has a liver condition and is on lots of medications and can't donate; one was too scared, and the one who took my photo was going to donate but her iron level was too low and she was turned away.

Manic: Please tell your friend whose iron was too low thanks for trying, that was very, very cool of her to do so! And thanks for taking your picture anyway! And tell your friend with the liver condition I'm sorry for his or her health condition and I hope everything will be OK.

Bev: Please excuse my hair. It was drizzly and rainy in Atlanta on Tuesday and thus, my hair was in a ponytail.

Manic: Come on, your hair looks great! This is a blood contest, not a hair contest! The hair post was last week when I got mine cut! Ha.

Bev: And please excuse that my boobs look like they are trying to take over the world.

Manic: Everybody, watch out! Bev's boobs are taking over the world, starting with an Atlanta blood donation center!

Bev: They're just huge and I can't do much about that.

Manic: Be proud of those boobs. Bev, you are totally cracking me up! Thank you for making me laugh!!

Bev: Thanks again for what you are doing!

Manic: Thank YOU for donating your healthy good blood to save some lives! Check Bev and her boobs out (Ha, just kidding, just check Bev out, not her boobs), at Sauntering Soul. But seriously, Bev, enough about your boobs, how are your brother's testicles?

Bev: Thanks for asking! Next month will be five years post-chemo and he will finally be considered cured. He's a sculptor and owns his own foundry so he does extremely physical work and has had no problems since he finished his treatment five years ago. He continues to have scans done, of course, but so far so good!

Manic: That's great news! And if I may, that reminds me of a little joke Mr. Manic made up on the way home from church today. Somehow we got on the topic of penises and the kids were making up jokes in the car and well, this is the Manic family.

Here's his made-up joke:

What did the penis say when he looked upside-down?

What are ya, nuts?

Ba-Dum-Dum!

And that concludes this week's Sunday Bloody Sunday! You ALL truly rock and thank you for taking the time from your busy schedules to donate blood and to enter the Manic Donate Blood contest!!

Remember, all of you scaredy cats out there, there's still time to donate and enter the contest. And you can bet before it's over, I will have Mr. Manic strapped to a blood table donating, or I'm not Manic Mommy! After all, I did get him to attend an hour-and-a-half long yoga class with me tonight! So what's a little blood donation then?

For all the details, just CLICK HERE!! You can donate all the way through Thursday, February 14, and there is a fairly large cash prize as well as other prizes to be won!

And, as for blood being thicker than water, if you haven't already read the previous post about my Girls Day Out, I spent Saturday with some of my best girlfriends from high school, and let me tell you, I would certainly bleed for any one of them, and I'd definitely help them hide from men in steam showers as well!