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XBA Blood Drive - February 7th-20th!


Creech
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http://www.xboxachievements.com/images/game/1/guide/blooddrivebanner2.png

 

I would like to take a moment to talk about something other than gaming. Every two seconds, someone in the USA gets a blood transfusion. That blood has to come from another human within the last 42 days. If you do the math and apply it worldwide, that makes for a LOT of blood donations that are needed every day.

 

I have had many family members in the hospital over the last 40+ years who needed blood transfusions, and most recently one of my co-workers was going through chemotherapy and needed two blood transfusions each day. My daughter spent a week in the hospital over Christmas break one year, and one of the treatments discussed was a whole body blood replacement. The doctors opted for another approach simply because the blood supply at the time was so low, which really highlighted to me on a personal level how critical blood donation can be.

 

I was at the blood bank giving blood yesterday and there were very prominent signs up that were basically begging for people to give blood because we had such a low supply in the region. Nobody can give more than once every 6 weeks, but it struck me that we have a great community here at XBA that can help.

 

So we are going to have a blood drive around the world! What I am asking of you is to call or go online and make an appointment to give blood in the two-week period of February 7th through February 20th, and then come in this thread and let us know you did so.

 

That gives everyone two months to get off your butts and put it on the calendar. It will take away about 90 minutes of your gaming time, but will help someone near you to get through a trying time in their life. During that two week period, after you go to your appointment and donate, come back in here and let us know and I will recognize your contribution to your community with a small token of my appreciation, a little award showing you are a blood donor. You can see the award on my profile to the left. I don't need any proof, just your word that you went and donated.

 

If you have never donated before, the Red Cross has a useful page here that provides a lot of information. The biggest question I get is "Does it hurt?" That mostly depends on the skill of the technician, frankly...a needle stick can be unnoticeable or feel like a bee sting. Either way, it is minor compared to the potential loss of life because of the blood supply not being there for someone in need.

 

This isn't a one-time issue...the need for blood will always be there, so every eight weeks we are going to have reminders about giving blood. The award will stay on your profile as long as you keep giving blood every eight weeks, showing our online community that you care not just for achievements, but for those around you IRL as well.

 

I thank you for your time and involvement.

 

Creech

 

Edit: I set this out for eight weeks to give people time to fit it into their schedules, but if you can make the time now and get in to donate blood in the next two weeks, you can get the award now...just make a follow up appointment to also donate during our "official" blood drive timeframe!

Edited by Creech
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My father had open heart surgery when I was in middle school, and he used over 5 gallons of blood before the surgery was completed. As soon as I was old enough to donate, I started. I have more than paid back what he used.

 

Around 2 years ago (around the 6 gallon mark), the local blood donation place asked if I would be willing to switch to platelet donations (my count was good, and my ample size made me a prime candidate). I go in every 2-3 weeks when they call me, and sit in the chair for 2 hours while they get what they need (the donation center is an hour away from home, so you do the math as to how much of my life I've spent on this). Platelets are difficult for the hospitals, as they only have a shelf life of a few days - they need to have a solid estimate of how many they need in advance, as they don't want them to go to waste, but they want to make sure they have enough to cover what they need. The machine they use also allows them to take red cells and plasma, so I have kept up my donations of those, too.

 

I don't have my next donation set up yet, but I'll be sure to stop back once I do - I just wanted to add my thoughts to what Creech has already mentioned.

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This is an awesome idea. I've only donated 6 times but the last time I did there was a guy who was on his 10th gallon. :eek: Also, they have cookies!

 

When I donated in October, the tech made me a black widow spider bandage. I will look around and see if I have a picture.

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This is an excellent idea. I haven't donated any blood since my sophomore year of college but hell, this is a good reminder for me to donate next year.

 

My gym has blood drives pretty often year round, and has one the week after Christmas, so I think I'll sign up when I go in today.

Edited by BiggD
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Love this idea. It's hard for me to give because I have a low platelet count and pass out very easily from blood loss, but I know how important it is. My wife needed bags of blood during both of her C-sections. I'll try to psych myself up and get it done but we'll see if they let me!

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Love this idea. It's hard for me to give because I have a low platelet count and pass out very easily from blood loss, but I know how important it is. My wife needed bags of blood during both of her C-sections. I'll try to psych myself up and get it done but we'll see if they let me!

 

Less than 40% of the population is able to donate for a variety of reasons such as iron deficiency, health problems, travel to high risk countries, etc. There was a three year period where I wasn't able to give because I was getting regular bone grafts. I have travelled out of the country and been invalidated for a period of time as a result of that as well.

 

Please at least make an appointment and see if you can. If you show up for the appointment and they say no, I will still hand out the award to acknowledge your support for the effort.

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Here is the bandage I got in October:

 

http://www.xboxachievements.com/images/game/1/guide/Octbandage.JPG

 

They went all out, I only get gauze and surgical tape lol. I stopped donating due to getting tattoos. You have to wait a year after getting any ink done. I haven't gotten a tattoo in years so no excuses as to why I can't donate.

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I try to give as much blood as I can when the drives come around. Been going strong for about 3 years now. Yeah, I can still see the scar spots (albeit tiny) in the creases of my arms but hey, it's a noble thing to do.

 

Will try to post in here if I remember this is a thing.

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Damn, I only donated last week. In the UK you can only donate a minimum of 12 weeks apart, so i can't donate again until March 2016.

 

It is a great idea. My wife needed a blood transfusion after giving birth to our first. She was very, very ill. As she is rhesus negative, she has a rare blood group. She had to wait 48 hours (not the nicest wait) until enough rhesus negative blood was found for her. Interestingly, her blood can be given to anyone but she can only be given rhesus negative otherwise it is rejected.

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They went all out, I only get gauze and surgical tape lol. I stopped donating due to getting tattoos. You have to wait a year after getting any ink done. I haven't gotten a tattoo in years so no excuses as to why I can't donate.

 

Yesterday I got a Seahawks wrap, but I didn't take a picture of it.

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Damn, I only donated last week. In the UK you can only donate a minimum of 12 weeks apart, so i can't donate again until March 2016.

 

It is a great idea. My wife needed a blood transfusion after giving birth to our first. She was very, very ill. As she is rhesus negative, she has a rare blood group. She had to wait 48 hours (not the nicest wait) until enough rhesus negative blood was found for her. Interestingly, her blood can be given to anyone but she can only be given rhesus negative otherwise it is rejected.

 

Rh- people have it pretty rough. I'm one of em - I had to have so many iron supplements as an infant it was insane.

 

I don't think they're that rare though. It's pretty rare to find Rh- O's, but still.

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Rh- people have it pretty rough. I'm one of em - I had to have so many iron supplements as an infant it was insane.

 

I don't think they're that rare though. It's pretty rare to find Rh- O's, but still.

 

Yup, she's O Rh -. The reason it is rare in UK, is that O Rh - blood stocks are used for road traffic collisions, incidents, major incidents, etc, so it is used pretty quickly as it can be given to anyone. When she needed it, the blood was found in another part of the country and had to be transported. That is why blood transport can drive on blue lights like other emergency services, not sure how it is in US.

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Yup, she's O Rh -. The reason it is rare in UK, is that O Rh - blood stocks are used for road traffic collisions, incidents, major incidents, etc, so it is used pretty quickly as it can be given to anyone. When she needed it, the blood was found in another part of the country and had to be transported. That is why blood transport can drive on blue lights like other emergency services, not sure how it is in US.

 

US doesn't even have blue lights, or even emergency lanes as far as I know (outside of cities I think).

 

Still, no wonder your wife had such a hard time. I think Rh- O blood is below 5% in occurrence... lucky that she has the most popular blood of all time, very unlucky in that she can barely get help when she needs it.

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US doesn't even have blue lights, or even emergency lanes as far as I know (outside of cities I think).

 

Still, no wonder your wife had such a hard time. I think Rh- O blood is below 5% in occurrence... lucky that she has the most popular blood of all time, very unlucky in that she can barely get help when she needs it.

 

The worst thing for her is that she can no longer give blood herself because she had a transfusion. She gave blood regularly for 9 years, had the transfusion and has not been able to give for the last 12 years. Unless the rules change, she'll never be able to donate again. That is the only reason I donate, never did before my wife needed it, have done it regularly since.

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I've given blood twice. First time was in 2014 when the blood mobile came to my work. They came back in 2015 too. They keep calling me to schedule an appointment (almost to the point of harassment) but I'll make the appointment within those two weeks. :)

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I've never given blood before because of my fear of needles, but this is such a beautiful cause that I think I will. There is a first time for everything! :) What a fantastic way to spread awareness within the community. :bearhug:

 

As long as you don't look, you won't even notice if your pain tolerance is relatively high :)

 

Naturally I'm one of those weirdos who watches the entire process.

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As long as you don't look, you won't even notice if your pain tolerance is relatively high :)

 

Naturally I'm one of those weirdos who watches the entire process.

Oh yeah I definitely won't look, I never can lol. I'll sit and put my arm out, and then crank my whole upper body around the other way completely so that I'm almost looking behind me lol! But if it's anything like a shot, then I'm sure it doesn't actually hurt anyway. (Hopefully? lol) :)

 

I should have always been regularly doing this, so it's about time I gave it a try. If it's not too bad, I might even become a regular! I'll see how I do. ;)

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