Day 32

Dear Uterus,

Someone donated blood in honor of me the other day.

I can't even explain to you how amazing that made me feel.

I've donated blood before. When you do that, you know it's going to help someone.

I never realized how important it was until I was on the other side of it. I've read the average need per incident/person is 1-2 bags of blood.

I've posted this pic before, but I want you to really look it at now. 

If you look at that little tally, you see all the Packed Red Blood Cells (PRBC) I received, the Fresh Frozen Plasma (FFP), the Platelets, and the Cryoprecipitate (cryo).

I see at least eleven faceless people( and up to twenty five) that took time to go donate. One donation can help up to three people once the blood is processed.

Here is some scary (rough)math for you.

A typical blood donation takes 1 pint of blood from you. That's 473mls. After it's processed and seperated, you're left with a bag of PRBC, some platelets, some plasma, and maybe some cryo.

A typical bag of PRBC contains about 350ml. That's almost 12 ounces. (73% of the 1 pint you donated)

The average woman has about 5 liters of blood in her. That's around 170 ounces. This 170 ounces counts not just the blood cells, but also the plasma and platelets in your blood.

I used 11 bags of PRBC. That's 132 ounces. Of just blood cells.

That's 77% of the average woman's blood volume. IN JUST BLOOD CELLS

When the second OB said I was running on empty, he wasn't exaggerating.... I was empty.

So, the next time I drive by a red-cross donation drive-- I'll be thinking a little differently.

-Michelle