Virgil
My Period
by , 12-28-2008 at 11:04 PM (5487 Views)
Today I had my period.I can understand how you women complain about getting it every month, though I’m lucky that I have mine every two months.
My complaints aren’t cramps or aches. Lucky mine don’t last about a week or whatever they last on you women. Mine last only about twenty minutes, but I do feel the effects for the next few days. I am definitely weaker for the next few days and my workouts tend to be more strenuous at the gym, since I feel the lack of oxygen delivery to my muscles. At least for the past year I’ve been having my period every two months.
But unlike you of the fairer sex I freely choose to have my period. My period consist of donating blood to the New York Blood Center for the purpose of helping a person undergoing an operation, or a trauma patient or a cancer patient or someone needing a transfusion.
Today I donated for the sixth time this year. That’s just about the most one can donate in a year, there being a requirement that one cannot donate again until 56 days have passed. I have donated every other month in 2008. Oh I suppose if one donated on or about New Year’s day one could sneak in seven blood donations in a year, but I do think I pretty much maximized my blood allowance for the year.
I had given in the past here and there, and sometime last year Logos had a blog I think (I can’t seem to find her reference; perhaps it wasn’t a blog.) about donating blood, and it resonated in me. It's an easy way to help and being blest with good health I feel I owe it. So in January I donated blood and apparently they liked my blood so much they phoned me up and asked me to donate again at the next opportunity I was eligible My blood type is B-, which may not be the rarest, but it must be somewhat hard to come by since they wanted it specifically. So I donated in March and the blood center enlisted me into what they call the Gallon Club. I get a white card for being in the Gallon Cub, ultimately I graduating to a gold card and then a black card. You can read about it here and surf this website for blood donation information: http://www.nybloodcenter.org/donorca...sid0=2&sid1=17.
So now I’ve been doing this every other month, like a period.
The other reason I donate is that I’ve come to believe that it is actually healthy to donate blood, at least for men since they don’t have monthly periods. Women have a natural monthly benefit – though I know you women dread it. Women do live longer and until menopause have much lower cardiac risks. A while back I saw an interview with a medical professional who at the time hypothesized the health benefits of getting rid of excess blood. I don’t recall who he was, but I think they have since confirmed his hypothesis. You can read about the health benefits of blood donation here: http://www.physicians-background.com/blood.html. I also found this interesting in that piece: “The two studies involved over 6,500 men and were conducted by the University of Kansas and the University of Kuopio in Finland. Researchers believe by giving blood, men -- and post-menopausal women -- rid their bodies of excessive iron, which is thought to contribute to heart disease.” I happen to be on the high side of normal iron levels, actually occasionally over the norm. High iron is toxic and damages internal organs and really can lead to organ damage. People with high iron disease (hemochromatosis) actually have their blood drawn regularly and thrown away. You can read about that here: http://www.irondisorders.org/faq.asp. And an interesting note in there is this: “Should someone without hemochromatosis donate blood? Yes. One blood donation a year can lower a male's risk of heart attack by 50%.”
Today I actually had a different type of blood donation, a double red cell donation. They take blood, separate the red cells from the rest of the plasma in a machine and pump it back in through the needle. Really cool, you see it all before you, and you don’t feel anything. This method allows them to have blood more concentrated with red cells and actually take less fluid out of your body. It only took an extra twenty minutes, which makes the process about a little over a half hour. I asked why they do this and the technician said it’s for cancer patients. So I hope I have convinced many of you who are eligible to help your fellow man and hopefully do good for your health as well and go donate blood. Other than a pinch of the needle it’s really painless.
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