Donating Blood

As Martin Luther King famously said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”

In a world where we are so preoccupied with our family, friends and co-workers, it is not easy to make a difference in the lives of those with whom we have no connection.? Thirteen years ago, I was cajoled by a friend to join him at a blood drive and I reluctantly agreed. ? I have a fear of needles, officially called trypanophobia and on any injection (or in this case blood draw) I trepidatiously ask the injector to let me know when he or she jabs me so that I can look away. ? Interesting side-note: ChatGPT-4 actually gave me “trepidiously” as a valid adverb form of trepidation, though it also confirmed use of trepidatiously - was it experiencing a mild form of hallucination?. ?

The interesting part of this first encounter was this extremely cute nurse who was drawing my blood and in getting ready for the jab, I was not sure what impression I would create with my “non-macho” request to look away.? Fortunately I was married at that time and knew where my loyalties were and had no hesitation in making my request. ? It was thirteen years ago and my memories of that first blood draw might be embellished and maybe I could be hallucinating myself.? One thing I am reasonably sure about is that the nurse was female (not that there is anything wrong if it was a male nurse - channeling Seinfeld ??

Since that first draw of blood, I have tried my best to make blood donations a regular part of my life.? Visits to India would impose a one year moratorium on donations, although that has now been reduced to three months. ? Why donate blood? ? I used to be a knowledgeable Google doctor spewing medical advice and remedies to members of my family but unfortunately both my brother and sister are real doctors. ? Naturally I was shot down - there is only so much one can glean from reading as opposed to actually having skin in the game (though neither of my siblings were urologists or dermatologists). ?

Since then I have graduated to be a Chat-GPT4 doctor - so let me give you its thoughts on this. ? Blood and its components are crucial in medical treatments, surgeries, cancer therapy, chronic illnesses, and traumatic injuries. Donated blood can be used in medical research, helping scientists to study health and disease, develop new treatments, and understand more about blood disorders.? There is this startling graphic on the Stanford Blood Center page (https://stanfordbloodcenter.org) that states about every 2 seconds, someone in the US needs blood.

What is more interesting is how it impacts you as a donor.? In spite of having done this multiple times, there are those questions in the pre-screening that I still find engaging and humorous related to my sexual behavior, my tattoos and piercings and my dietary habits (I am a vegan). ? As an aside, do you know how to identify a vegan in a party ? - you will never need do, they will always let you know ??.? There are the perks of getting a free health screening before each donation and regular donation is beneficial from a health perspective.? I try to gamify my donations by seeing how fast I can complete the draw of 475 ml of blood - my current personal record is less than 6 minutes.? Last year I actually tried an apheresis platelet donation where only the platelets are collected and the remaining components of my blood are returned to me. ? Since it was a longer process, the only downside was that I drained the battery on my iPhone watching movies throughout the donation.?

My goal in this short write-up is not to preen about my donations but to encourage all of you to consider this as one way to follow MLK’s quote at the start. ? I realize I am writing this in Black History Month - am glad about propagating his message.? For whole blood donations, it is a one hour commitment every 8 weeks and you will be making such a difference in the lives of others.? And the? emotional uplift you will personally feel will truly impact your own well-being. ?