The Flavor of Me

I have been donating platelets for a few years now, and I have blogged about it before. I love the idea of providing a product from my own body, that I have in abundance, to help another person in poor health. It has been a fairly easy process for me, and typically, I will go in every three weeks or so to donate. At the Mayo Clinic here in Rochester, you can only donate whole blood once every 12 weeks. Platelets can be donated as often as once every 8 days. I rarely go that often, but I did do that a few times when I first started. It takes a lot longer to donate platelets, as the process called apheresis spins my blood, separating the red cells from the platelets. I get the red cells back, and they keep the platelets. That takes a while! For me, the whole process from beginning to end takes about two hours. Donating whole blood took me about half an hour. So basically, I now donate four times as often for four times as long (each time). Numbers! They are fun.

The last two times I have donated platelets have been special to me, because I have been matched to a specific patient. They told me I was an HLA match for someone and requested that I come in to donate. I was thrilled to be able to help someone out – and then promptly got a cold. Yuck. I couldn’t donate for another couple weeks. They still needed my platelets for that patient, and I was still thrilled to be able to help in that way. I mentioned this on Facebook, but to me, it felt like winning the lottery. My specific platelets were just right for someone who was sick. I read up on HLA specific donations and learned that a non-family member match happens with about 1 in 10,000 people. That was cool.

Me, donating today after a walk to the park with my preschoolers. 

My special platelets, the blue tag special for some special patient

Today when I went in, I asked a few more questions. This was my second donation for the same patient. The donations need to be coordinated with the patient’s treatment plan. If the patient is getting treatments, he (or she) will likely need platelets. I learned something new today. I am not a traditional (true) HLA match. Instead, this person has simply responded well to my platelets when he/she received them in the past. That’s almost cooler. Because I donate regularly, this person has received my platelets in the past with positive results, so now the medical staff people request my platelets.

“What flavor of platelets would you like today?”

“I’ll take the flavor of Liz!”

Well, not exactly that, but kind of! I am amazed at the way science and unknown factors have come together to help this patient. I like to think the unknown factors have a Divine origin, because I serve a creative and compassionate God.

I think I’ll take a nap now. Here’s my point, before I sign off: be willing to serve, however God calls you to serve. It may be donating blood or platelets, but it may just as easily be packing meals for Feed my Starving Children or teaching Sunday school or singing on worship team or sharing the produce from your garden or…well, or HOWEVER God calls you!

Listen.

Open your eyes.

Step out in faith.

SERVE.

Because somewhere out there, someone is waiting for the flavor of YOU!