Progress for progress' sake
Less than two weeks ago I donated blood again. And afterwards I wasn't quite myself for a while. Then last week I decided it's nearly time to resurrect my genial plan an went for a run. Oh my! The suffering! The road didn't seem to want to move anywhere, even the grannies with crutches were faster than I was. My heart was pounding like there was no tomorrow and when I reached sound 185 heart beats per minute I had to stop jogging and start walking. Luckily, I'm not so much out of practice. But the fact that I donated nearly half a liter of blood a while ago takes its toll.
Today, less than a week later, after having skipped practice on Friday, because I was too lazy and on Sunday, because I was stranded at a family get-together, I finally went running again. I ran about 2 km non stop (a big improvement from last week), and walked about half a kilometer to warm myself up. After a while the legs, the arms and breathing synchronised and running became much more fun. Actually in retrospect it was great and if I don't have cramps in my legs tomorrow, I just might go again.
And here's a little plea for help - if you fit the description, please donate blood. To cover the current needs, every day at least 350 people in Slovenia have to donate blood. It's a very small sacrifice on your side, but can be life-saving for the one in need of your help. Decide to help today.
Labels: life, medicine, runner wannabe
4 Comments:
I used to donate blood but lately I have been taking some medicine that prevents me to do it. Also, I can only give blood once a year or else I get anemic...
Lilit - I have loads of respect for people like you, who still go and do something (even if once a year) despite knowing that they could throw out an excuse and never donate blood at all.
I understand about your current situation, but then again you strike me as a person who will try to donate some blood again when she's able. I like Jelka's attitude also.
The problem is that there are so many people in Slovenia who could just as well donate blood at least once a year, but never do so. But they keep rambling about how they would want to do something good, if only they could.
Well, my whole family does or did donate blood :)
My father does it every 3 months or so. My mother did that but she has some skin disease and she was advised to stop. My sister went there like 5 or 6 times but could never donate because she was always anemic :)
I donated blood 5 times and will certainly start again when I will be able to. I would like to do it more often, but it seems my body does not agree with that...
I was thinking about becoming a potential bone marrow donor, but I'm a little scared about the fact that it's supposed to hurt like hell...
Then you're a vey fine family indeed. I'm the only one in my family who donates. My grandfather used to donate every three months, though. He donated more than 100 times in his life, which is just fantastic.
What exactly is supposed to hurt like hell? You can donate blood and they determine your HLA type from that, and put you in the register/database. Only if you're a close match for someone will they call you and even then you can decline. It's not very often that they find a match outside family though, so chances are you might never have to decide whether to donate bone marrow or not.
As far as I know they use certain hormones and then put your blood through a machine that colects the premature blood cells (such as form bone marrow). They usually don't perform the extraction of marrow with a needle.
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