So it has been two month since I started this Blood Blog topic... bad, really bad. But I am proud to say that I am now a registered donor, and I have made my first appointment in this coming weekend.
My excuse for the 2 month gap would be the fact that I was out of the country for 3 weeks and I was sick for 2. But other than that I ran into a little snag during my registration. For some reason I just could not confirm my donor profile. I tried everything online but nothing worked. So I finally called the Canadian Blood Service (1-888-2-donate). I was helped by a very nice person and it turns out the reason is because, when I talked to the mobile clinic in 2001, they had set up a donor profile for me. However the address I provided back then does not match to my current address - since that was over 10 years ago and I have moved like 7 times in the mean time. He is unable to make any changes for me over the phone, but he suggested I set up an appointment (which is the reason I am going through all this anyway), and when I am in the clinic talk to a nurse who has the ability to change my donor profile. He also informed me that making appointments over the phone is much more efficient - by phone you can make an appointment for the next day, but online there is a 48 hours lag.
I am not sure if it's because I am a registered donor, but now I actually am seeing a lot of the effort Canadian Blood Services made to make people aware of their purpose (like pregnant ladies start to see pregnant ladies on the street?). There are advertisements on the street and on the bus, the announcement on the radio tells you the level of blood available is alarmingly low, and the surprising statistic that it takes on average 50 pints of blood to save a car accident victim's live (image source: blood.ca). All of it makes me realize how deangerous it is for us to wait any longer to take action.
So, only a handful of days left and I will have 1 pint (450 ml) of blood drained out of me. In the mean time I will stay healthy - exercises regularly, drink lots of fluid, eat healthy iron-rich food, no drinking (not a requirement but I think it helps), and go to bed early... oh, it is already past 1AM so I guess I'll start on that one tomorrow.
Anyway, the next time you see this topic on my blog would be after my trip to donate. I will report in and let you know how it goes. Hopefully I will inspire at least one of you to, not necessary donate blood even though it is a good idea, but make a difference in other people's lives.
