I gave blood today. I'll admit, it's not my favorite way to spend an hour, but based on the nationwide need for blood and the fact that I have the almost-universal blood type, I feel like it's my civic duty. The process is pretty painless, in fact the most painful part was when the young woman checking me in asked if I was comfortable using the computer to answer questions about my health history. When I laughed and said (duh...) yeah, she said, "Well, my mom's not." Wow. That hurt. If you don't donate your blood every 56 days, here are a few facts to convince you that you should:
- Every 2 seconds, someone in the US needs blood.
- One out of every 10 people admitted to a hospital needs blood.
- A single car accident victim can require as many as 100 units of blood.
- 25% of us will need blood at least once in our lives.
- Less than 38% of the population is eligible to donate blood.
- Only 5% of the eligible donors donate blood, but the rate of blood transfusions is rising at 9% per year.
- One donation can help save the lives of up to 3 people.
- It only takes about an hour to give blood, and of that hour, only 10-12 minutes are spent actually donating blood. The rest of the time is spent answering questions, having your temperature and blood pressure taken, and eating cookies at the recovery table!
- And don't worry about the calories from those cookies because you burn 650 calories by donating a pint of blood. If you donate every 56 days you can lose 1 pound of ugly fat per year by donating blood!
Just do it!!!
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