The day has arrived! My 44th birthday. I have a year to fulfill the challenges I chose. It all started today by my husband, my sister, and I heading to the nearest American Cross blood donation location.
On the way I dropped a couple handwritten letters in the mail! Only 42 more to go!
As I mentioned before I had not donated blood in many many years. So it was like starting over, which was totally ok! I had this great gal named Renee that was a hoot! Seriously fun, which made the experience even better! They took me to a room alone after I checked in and read through some materials. Then I answered some questions, she took a blood sample, and we were ready to rock and roll! 🙂
Renee took me to an open room that had several people donating blood and then others that were donating platelets. My husband was already getting setup. What a great guy! It was his first time and he was done in no time at all! Thanks sweetie for helping me reach my goal! My sister, helped as well. She donated and was done before me as well! She is in the background of the photo!
Renee asked me what arm I wanted to use, and I said the left since I am right-handed. Well, she searched for a vein and finally found one after use of the blood pressure cup. She got all setup and began the process. Unfortunately it didn’t go as planned. My vein decided not to stick around or up or whatever it is. Instead of making me suffer or get bruised we switched arms.
All in all the experience was a great! I am SO glad I did it! I will do it as much as I am able to in the next year! The next time I am eligible is February 20th, so I will be searching for a drive around then or making another appointment at the American Red Cross donation location nearest to me!
I hope you will join me in my challenge to help others by donating blood (if you can). I even setup a team on the Red Cross app, it’s called pfwg44thbirthday. Together we can make a difference! Just three of us today helped nine people in the future! For every pint it helps three people! Isn’t that cool?!
If you aren’t able to donate blood or choose not to, how about sending some handwritten notes of encouragement! That is my other challenge and I think it would be great fun for all of us! 🙂 Be sure to comment if you are joining us!
Don’t forget to follow us on our instagram, find us! pushingforwardwithgrace! I will be completing a photo journal of our year long fun and others that have inspired us!
Grace is a gift,
Julie
Helpful Links
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