Would you like your left or right arm?

I had a person ask me this question, "Would you like you left or right arm?"  I told them I could do either.  I was then told to sit in a nicely reclined seat and wait for someone to come talk to me.  "What's your name?  What's your birthday?  Social?  Gender?"  (You'd think I'd remember my gender right?  "Uh, hold on a second, let me call my mom."  I guess they are just checking I suppose.)  Following this brief interrogation my arm was swabbed with this yellow gooey stuff, which was then followed by a brief prick, and Wallah!  Blood!

Donating blood is one of the easiest ways to help other people and it hardly takes any effort at all.  Just a light squeeze every 3 to 5 seconds, and usually within 5 to 9 minutes they have the blood they need.  I'm getting this from the Red Cross information on blood donating; they say a unit of blood can save up to three peoples lives.  That's pretty amazing if you ask me.

So what are the steps to donating blood?

1. Contact your local blood donation agencies including Red Cross and others.  The Red Cross even has a website. http://www.redcrossblood.org/  You can set up appointments or they do allow walk-ins.
2. Drink a good amount of water and have a good meal before donating blood
3. Travel to the donating location safely (so you can still donate)
4. Take time to answer the questions honestly and accurately
5. Stay cool and relax as blood is being drawn
6. After you're finished take 10-15 minutes to drink plenty of liquids and eat the provided food
7. Keep the bandage on for at least 5 hours and follow the other directions given such as no heavy lifting or exercise

It's really a lot of fun and it can help save lives.  So take time to donate.  At the most it might take an hour and a half, but imagine the time your blood could give someone else, years or more.  If you haven't donated yet, you might even find out you have a rare blood type that can save the lives of infants as well.  My only advice is this...  Remember your name and your gender.  ;)