I remember once, in college, I tried to give blood in one of those blood mobiles parked outside of the English building on campus. The technician did the initial blood test which confirmed what he described as a "borderline" iron level. Seeing my obvious disappointment, he offered to test another finger and by golly that other finger had just enough iron to put me through to the next round! It was one of my only successful blood letting days.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I tried to give blood for the Red Cross after Mass--they were in the parish family life center, nobody was waiting in line, and they offered to give our children some cookies while Matt and I donated. It seemed like a good and noble and convenient endeavor. Again, not to my surprise, but much to my dismay my iron proved too low to donate. I tried to reason with the guy. . ."Hey, try another finger. . ." NO!, he insisted. He explained that the Red Cross does not make those sorts of concessions. They have "high standards" and they didn't want my sub-par blood. Nothing personal, I just wasn't good enough. I left rejected but with a cool T-shirt and some free advice from one of the volunteers for me to do all my cooking from now on in a cast iron skillet.
Then, today, I found a link to an article about the "incredible health benefits of donating blood." I thought, "I could use a bit of self-mortification today," so I read the article --ya know, to see exactly what I'm missing. . .
Drum roll.
Health benefit: "Blood donation removes some of the excess iron which can cause free radical formation in the body."
Touché!
Eyeing me from a small distance, my brother thinks to himself, "Just look at her. . .sitting there smiling with her low iron levels. . .Pathetic!"
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