Blood, it's in you to give!

This post has nothing to do with Sochi tonight, I just thought I should blog about blood.  Dean and I went to the blood donor clinic in Forest tonight, he has a rare type of blood AB- and is always asked to donate, I have a more common type, A+.  Dean was able to donate, I was kicked out the door.  I wasn't really, it just felt that way.  Turned away because my haemoglobin was too low, AGAIN!  I haven't been able to donate for ten years now.  I've tried really hard to get my iron levels up and lately I thought I had done it.  I take those little green pills everyday, I eat broccoli at least once a week, spinach all the time, I have oatmeal for breakfast five days a week and I eat red meat, even had steak for supper tonight.  I give up!  I had me a little meltdown with tears and everything tonight, then I got over that.  Then I was just mad, so I called the doctors to set up an appointment to see what the heck is going on.  Now I'm over that!  I was born anemic and I will die anemic.  I can't give blood, simple done, already over it!  I guess it's up to Dean to give enough for all of us.  The next blood donor clinic is April 15th and he has an appointment this time.  Go Deano!   
I never realized how important it was to donate blood until we were thrown into the cancer world.  I had absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of most of the medical terms they were throwing at us.  The first and most important were the CBC's, no not ABC's, CBC's, it stands for complete blood count, and every time we were there they were taking more blood to check all these levels.  The white blood cells, the hemoglobin, the platelets and the neutrophils, all very important factors when it comes to what the heck is going on in your body.  As far as I can remember Tyler had only one blood transfusion and it was for low hemoglobin.  I think his got down to 87-90, 110-140 is normal.  It was creepy at the time, watching someone else's blood drip, drip, drip.  Yuck!  And this from a mother that watched them fill her son with poison, you'd think I could handle anything by then.  It was amazing how fast he perked up after that transfusion!  The scariest number we had to watch out for were the neutrophils, cause if these got too low your body had nothing to fight off infection.  The point of chemotherapy is to kill off all the cancer cells in the body, but unfortunately, all the good cells go to.  It's been a while, maybe it was the white blood cells that were so scary, I can't remember.  Anyhow, I think Tyler's neutrophils were low just once and his chemotherapy was postponed until they came back up.  I tell you this kid has amazing blood.  He was like a rock-star on chemotherapy drugs!  He could bounce back so fast.  I remember we had a couple scares with fevers and low neutrophils, but he always made it through the fire.  Me, not so much!  Fevers to this day can send me into an absolute panic!  Needless to say, I fail, big time as a nurse.  Thank God for our home nurse Ellen who was there for us almost everyday for eight months!  We were so fortunate to have such great care, thanks to all our nurses and health care team! 
Not all kids are rock stars like Tyler, many depend on your blood everyday to survive.  It is so important to give blood, so if you are able, please donate...it could save a life!

Tyler is in Calgary this week and leaves for Russia in a week.  Less than two weeks to go for us, it's time to start packing.  Hmmm, what to pack?  I think I'll throw in the flip flops, shorts and t-shirts!  You just have to love Winter Olympics in the tropics...Go Sochi!