Giving Blood a Piece of Cake

Giving blood is a piece of cake. I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t do it.

That’s what I wrote for the Green River Community College Current newspaper when I did a first-person story on giving blood.

Trouble is, that was in 1977.

It really isn’t a big deal. The stick from the needle is no worse than getting a shot or getting your blood taken from a phlebotomist.

I don’t know why I haven’t given more over the years. Too busy I guess. But that’s just an excuse. Everyone should take the time to do it. It is the gift of life, you know.

When I heard about the emergency blood drive Monday at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Enumclaw I knew I wanted to do a story on it. It seems like the end of summer is always a time when the Puget Sound Blood Bank asks for donations.

Supplies are low because people are too busy in the summer with vacations and stuff to give blood. And supplies are needed more in summer because people are out and about doing things, which means more accidents occur.

A news release prior to the event said a spike in the demand for blood in the past two weeks has reduced the supply in Western Washington by 20 percent. It also says It takes more than 900 donor registrations every day to maintain an operational blood supply in Western Washington and that a pint can potentially save three lives.

That did it. I realized it had been 34 years since I’d given blood. I decided it was long past due for me to do my part to help society in this area.

The entire process took less than an hour. There was a little wait because so many people were there. All of the four bunks were in use. Workers said they expected 60 people to give blood that day.

The screening took much longer than the actual giving of blood. The employees just want to make sure your blood is safe to give to someone else. So you go through a process of filling out papers, answering questions on a computer, and then answering more questions from one of the workers.

Then you lie down for about 10 minutes and donate the blood.
Afterward you sit and rest for awhile and drink juice and have cookies or pretzels, and you’re done.

Piece of cake.