This started as an actual attempt as an art blog, but after shamelessly reblogging everything I saw, it's more like a reblog of 90% of everything I end up seeing on tumblr.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE READ THIS AND EDUCATE YOURSELF!

If ANY of you donate blood, PLEASE PLEASE PLASE listen for a few minutes.  This is a topic very close to my heard and it has impacted my life enough to make this my platform.  I’m sorry for the length of this post.

We’ve all heard of donating blood, right? Well, what you may not know is when you donate blood, you can choose to donate blood, plasma and platelets.  I encourage anyone who can to donate blood, but today my platform is platelets.

Platelets are what allows your blood to clot so that you don’t die when you get a paper cut.  Obviously, these are pretty necessary to actually live. (They also have other functions, I will have links at the end of the post

Two years ago, my grandmother (Granny) went to the hospital because she physically could not breathe.  she had blood clots in her lungs which ended up saving her because while trying to treat the blood clots, the doctors discovered that she had severe leukemia.  She got really sick for a while because they had to treat the blood clots AND the leukemia, and she was already in poor health.  Granny got to the point to where her platelet count would be in the single digits (healthy levels are in the hundreds of thousands) and came very near death many many times).  Granny died last Febuary, almost a year ago, but if it hadn’t been for platelet donations, she wouldn’t have lasted that last year.

We used to do a whole lot with Granny, and she’s the reason I’m pursuing the degree I’m pursuing.  Granny encouraged all of us to enjoy art, and she even let us come over and use her paints and paint with friends.  She loved nothing more than to see other people happy, and she could always find something beautiful within anything.  My entire family, her husband, her 4 children and her 8 grandchildren got to spend an entire year longer with her in our lives because of platelet donations.

Granny was in poor health before leukemia, and she was in her 70’s, but if platelet donations gave her an extra year of her life, imagine what it could do for someone younger and healthier.  Leukemia is only one condition that lowers platelets.  Many cancers and other diseases and disorders cause low platelets.

When you donate blood, you have the option to donate platelets.  You can actually donate platelets up to 24 times a year.  You can donate platelets once within a seven-day period. You may donate up to six times in an 8-week period and 24 times a year.    You can donate platelets 72 hours after donating whole blood. If you donate platelets first, you can donate whole blood 72 hours later.

Donating platelets is just as necessary as donating blood, and it really can save many many lives.  It saved my Grandmother for an entire year.

for more information, follow the links below or google “donating platelets”

http://www.redcrossblood.org/donating-blood/types-donations/platelet-donation

http://www.redcrossblood.org/donating-blood/types-donations

http://www.lifesouth.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=41&Itemid=72

http://www.mskcc.org/giving/blood/platelet-donations

http://www.blood.co.uk/platelets/can-i-donate/

tagged → #donating blood #platelets #save a life #thank #signal boost #help