Sunday Bloody Sunday III

Angie read about the contest over at Dawn at Because I Said So. She gave blood before she heard about the contest but sent in a pic of her donor card and the date she donated, which is during the contest time.

She wrote:
I think your contest is a great idea, giving blood is a simple way to save three lives. And you get cookies afterwards.

THANK YOU ANGIE!!! You qualify as a contestant!

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MICHELLE WROTE THIS EMAIL TO ME:

Hey Manic!

I found your blog through Dawn's. I just happened to click on your blood donation challenge and as it happens, on a whim, I donated blood on Saturday. My super sweet hubby talked my friends into getting me out of the house so he could plan a surprise Groundhog's Day party for me...weird I know...long story. Anyhow, I was out window shopping when we saw the mobile blood donation truck in front of the PX (our on-post Army shopping center). I said, "We should go give blood." My friends said yeah and laughed and kept walking. I said "Seriously we should" and they agreed. We filled out the paperwork answering a million questions we never thought about before in our lives. We laughed a lot and loved the nurses taking care of us in this tiny trailer with only a few small windows and power running with a loud generator! Relax...yeah sure! We didn't take pictures so I can't participate in your drawing unless you'll take a picture of my t-shirt they gave me and my impossible-to-remove tape lines and red hole in my arm??

I just thought I'd tell you that I also feel I ended up in that mobile blood draw station for a reason...maybe because my Hubby will be leaving for Iraq in a few weeks? Thanks for the great challenge to get others to give freely their blood that they make without even trying.

Michelle

I WROTE BACK TO MICHELLE:

Michele--DEFINITELY Send me a pic of you wearing your t-shirt and the tape lines and your arm and I'll enter you into the contest, and if it's OK, I'd love to post your picture and the story as well on my Sunday Bloody Sunday post--is that OK? I'll just need the photo, your name, email (which I have) city, state ... all neat and nice so I can put it in my contest sheet and you'll be entered!

Also, not weird for a groundhog day party--I LOVE GROUNDHOG DAY--it's the anniversary of the day I met Mr. Manic--it'll be 18 years to the day I met him on Feb. 2!

So please! Send in that pic, and so glad you donated, and so glad you stopped by via Dawn! I love her--we had a great lunch together a few weeks ago!

Take care!
Stephanie aka Manic!

HERE'S MICHELLE'S PICTURE!


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HERE'S ANOTHER GREAT EMAIL FROM A READER
WHO IS A BLOOD RECIPIENT:

Stephanie, thanks for your part in hosting this blood drive.
I am a recipient down the road from blood donations in the form of an Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIg) infusion every four weeks. There is a shortage of this pooled blood product, and some people are not being able to receive the treatment that they need to help them have some better days.

My next treatment begins February 11th, and will run for five days. That is five day of continuous IV infusion of this blood product. No prob, though... it gives me a chance to scoot around the blog world, and finding people like you out there! The blood *you've drawn* might be the catalyst for my being able to see better one day soon. Think so? I hope so, and I'm being serious. My blog is in my signature, but if that is not the thing to do, then it is andlifegoesononedayonestepatatime where you can go and see just how some of the blood you are... uh, do you recruit blood, draw blood, siphon blood.... gee, what would be the right term to use for this blood? In its final form, what they call that is given to me, is called *pooled* blood, regulated by the FDA, but I wasn't trying to get *that* technical! LOL.

Back to all seriousness, I really do appreciate your Blood Drive. I am better than I was last May 4th when I began these treatments.

Be Healthy, Wealthy & Wise... mmmmm... which would I choose if I could have only one? I'm not healthy nor wealthy, so there is nothing left but wise, and I'm dubious of that. LOL

Ragdoll Billie

On the Road to Remission
andlifegoesononedayonestepatatime
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/billiewages

Striving for a world without Myasthenia Gravis
http://www.myasthenia.org/amg_whatismg.cfm

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And this is from Kelli, who tried to donate on a Sunday but had a difficult time with unkind people because she had her young children with her, and the staff was not very friendly at all to her. FORTUNATELY, Kelli is a good-hearted, kind-spirited person and WENT BACK another time later in the week to donate. Here's what she said of her experience the second visit:

Hello Stephanie, I went to another blood bank today WITHOUT my children (remember Sunday's disaster) and gave a pint of my blood. All is well. It was a great experience. It's been more than ten years since I gave blood (the only other time) and I hope that life doesn't get so busy I forget. I am making a goal of every other month (odd months of this year). I also got the application to do a bone marrow donation. Which has been my goal since I gave my son a kidney 17 years ago, but wow does time fly. I really meant to do it years ago.



Have a great evening. Thanks for the push to donate. You will get a gold star in heaven, I am sure of it.

~Kelli~
visit our family blog daily at
all-k-names

THANK YOU KELLI!

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Lastly, from Lastel (hee, hee, I'm so funny, that wasn't even planned, but doesn't she have a cool name!):

Here is the pic of the info I picked up when I gave blood, the cards are a bit dog-eared as I had them stashed in my purse. I plan on giving again as soon as the time rolls around when I can, and I also plan to see about volunteering. I tried to give blood about three years ago and went through the screening to find out my iron was to low to donate, I was bummed since it had been so long since I donated. So when I knew I was going to donate this time I started taking iron pills every day and it's a good thing I did as my iron level was just over the cut-off point by one. My blood type is AB+ which is one of the more rare bloods, so Red Cross is pretty excited when people with my blood type donate on a regular basis.

LASTEL
aka STAMPINSTEL
stampinstelsuniquecreations

Thank you Angie, Michelle, Kelli, and Lastel for donating!
Thank you Ragdoll Billie for your great email!

There's still time to donate your extra pint of blood to this great cause. If you're here reading this post, it's calling you for some reason. It's quite possible you really do want to donate that pint, right?

1-800-GIVE-LIFE