When I was in college I started donating blood. I see by my cards that my first donation was 11/17/71 and I continued to donate through 1980. Occasionally I would get rejected for being anemic and once for being underweight. Once I nearly passed out in the quad and had to lay on the ground for a few minutes until my light-headiness passed. I stopped giving when I became a very regular runner. I wanted to keep all my oxygen-rich red blood cells for myself.
Then in 1993 I decided to start giving again. The American Red Cross tested my blood and found that I was a CMV donor which meant that my blood was free of this herpes virus. Cytomegalovirus is a common virus that infects 50-80% of the population worldwide and is the virus most frequently transmitted to a child before birth. This means that my blood can be given to newborns and on top of the fact that I am O Neg (the universal donor)I became a hot commodity with the Red Cross. I was hounded night and day with calls begging me to donate. I abruptly stopped donating in 1995 and endured several more years of vampiric begging of my blood. Now I no longer get these calls. I saw on the news recently that there is a severe shortage of blood....especially...you guessed it....O Neg. So I am wondering if I should man up and donate again. I'm still a regular runner and don't like giving my red cells away. Guidance here please? What do you think?
2 comments:
Dave just gave blood for the first time this past Saturday... I got deathly ill the first time I gave blood (in high school) but I think it was just coincidence. I'd like to do it again but didn't realize it was detrimental to regular runners. Let's try it together, see if it makes a difference to our running.
I've been thinking about this one for awhile. I was always waaaay too anemic to give blood, actually probably could have used a few units myself at several different periods of my life. I remember Becky getting really, really sick that time and it was scary. If you decide to go ahead with this, do try to take it easy for a couple of days. One person I know thinks giving blood is good for you but I always feel that the body knows how to regulate itself and if it feels the need for a certain amount of blood that is what we have. I suppose it really doesn't hurt anyone but it never hurts to take precautions.
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