Please go donate some blood!

I've not gotten too much sewing done lately because my dad has been in the hospital for the last 10 days. It took them a while, but they finally determined that he has an enzyme deficiency which is relatively uncommon. To treat him, he has to have a 1-8 week long treatment of plasma pherisis, where all the plasma in his blood is exchanged for donor plasma. Anyway, this daily treatment uses 16 or 17 pints of blood plasma every day (plus he's still having a pint tranfused nearly every day). He's getting much better, but not well enough to go home yet. The sheer amount of blood that is required for this treatment is just astounding to me...so today I am going to ask each and every one of you to please consider donating a pint of blood if at all possible. It has been years since I donated blood, but now I am planning to start doing so on a regular basis (the next bloodmobile here in town is next week, and DH and I will both be there) I am so grateful to everyone who has donated blood so that my father can have this treatment which will hopefully be life-saving for him that I now feel I need to return the favor. If you have never donated blood, or if it has been a while, please consider it. If for some reason you can't donate, please consider asking your loved ones to do so. And if you do donate blood, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!

Here is a link for the American Red Cross if you need to find out the guidelines for becoming a blood donor, or to locate a bloodmobile in your area.