Be a Blood Donor, Save Lives!

Yesterday, January 27, 2008, a Sunday, was a day to conquer fears. Let me just share one of my fears, BLOOD. This fear started out when I was about to enter elementary when I had to have my hair cut before going to school. I was waiting for the barber and there was this star apple tree at the back of the chair where I was waiting with a branch within my reach. So I jumped and hanged at that branch and swing once, twice, thrice and so on. I didn’t notice that the branch was starting to break because it was small that it cannot bear my weight anymore. And the next scene was the branch breaking and I falling to a stone below, with my head going first. My cousin Jojo who is three years older than me, came rushing to carry me. As he was carrying me, I saw his hands full of blood and I just cannot bear to see the blood coming out from my head. I had a stitch in my head after that and I was not able to attend school for a week. And from then on, I started to fear blood.

But yesterday was a different day. I have to start fighting what I fear. The move started because of the need of a close friend who would have a heart operation maybe sometime next week. He told us that he would be needing blood donors for his open heart surgery. At first I hesitated because of the fear of blood plus the fact that it would be my first time to donate. But then I told myself, hey, this is a matter of life and death, I should be brave enough to face my fear, besides, this person really needs to live longer because he is a very intelligent man and he would still be touching and helping many lives.

So there we go to the Philippine Heart Center at the blood bank area. Our friends wanted to donate blood also but most of them, especially the girls, were denied because most of them are underweight. Some were denied because of high blood pressure. To be accepted as a donor, one should have a weight/mass of 50 kilograms and up. Only five of us passed the screening. I was told by the attending medical technologist that they really need my blood now because there is a patient who is bleeding that needs white blood cells/platelets whose has blood type is the same as mine. My blood type by the way is AB, a very rare blood type. So those of you who would be needing this type of blood, I am still not available for three months. My blood by the way would be replaced by the blood type that would be needed for my friends operation. The attendant also told me that the process of getting what they needed would be different and longer and would take about 2 hours. My blood and urine was tested after that.

In about 5 o’clock in the afternoon the blood bank called my name and my friends. We are told that the process would already start. Mine was special. There was this apparatus (which I would still research because I don’t know what its called) which was connected to the hose where the blood flows and it extracts the white blood cells from the red blood cells. There was a gripping cloth attached to my arm and as it grips, the blood flows and when it releases, the red blood cells goes back to my system. It made ten cycles to finish. Thanks for the television, I was not bored because of the PBA semifinal game played by Sta. Lucia Realty and Alaska Aces. I also had fun there because Jack (he was a donor also and is afraid of the needle, you can really see the fear in his face) was with me and we started chatting with the attendants not to get bored.

I just wish that the platelets that I gave save the life of that bleeding patient. I also wish that the coming operation of our friend Francis (Tadz as we call him) would have a successful one. So friends let us pray for him. Be strong “pare”, I know you can do it!

P.S.
Mee, I’m sorry we were not able to come to your talent show because the process ended at about 7:30 pm and we traveled and arrived at 8:30 pm, I ate and was very dizzy. So I slept already. Hope we could watch the coronation night.