Your gift of blood can save lives

It was three Fridays ago, and I was just pulling up at the Clovis Civic Center. I'd been there numerous times before … for an empty building, for a full building, and all points between.

This morning was a lot closer to the empty designation as I made my way to the manned table.

I signed in, "Kevin Wilson, O-positive."

Joining me were a few Civic Center staffers, and a five-person crew with United Blood Services of Lubbock. They don't know Clovis streets, but they know enough local restaurants to get through the city without pulling out a GPS.

It was the first time I gave blood at the Civic Center, but it wasn't much different from the half-dozen other places I've donated blood the last few years.

You sit with one of the crew members in an isolated booth, and you answer a ton of questions to make sure your blood isn't risky.

"Have you taken any medications on this list? Have you traveled outside of the United States? Have you ever taken drugs through shared needles?"

There are some sexual questions, too, which I won't get into. I never make a joke during the question portion, as I'm sure it would result in a death glare from somebody who's about to shove a needle into my arm. But in the back of my mind, I always think about saying, "Well, there was that weekend in a Turkish prison ..."

You go to a chair, they stick you with a needle, and you lose enough blood to fill up a bag. Then you sit down and you grab some orange juice and cookies, but not before you're wrapped up in a bright bandage, told not to do anything strenuous and instructed to eat healthy the rest of the day.

This may sound like a condescending explanation of something as simple as blood donation, but I feel like I have to give it. I stuck around after my donation to grab a photo for the next day's paper, but waited more than 30 minutes because traffic was scarce at the blood donation room.

That indicates to me that a lot of people aren't giving blood, and need to be reminded how simple it is. I'm imagining the excuses right now. I'm busy (use a lunch break). I'm scared of needles (there's somebody in the hospital who's scared of bleeding to death).

Now that we've had a few weeks to let the predictable arguments take place from the Aurora theater shooting, we know that our country's driving forces lack the compassion to tackle mental health issues, or the courage to make sure unstable people can't freely build up arsenals.

But I do know that shooting victims, or somebody in a car crash CNN didn't cover, benefit from donated blood. Giving doesn't require much in the avenues of compassion or courage; it's mostly dependent on you finding a blood drive (bloodhero.com serves our area), and then showing up.

You can make a difference. I'm O-positive about it.

Kevin Wilson is a columnist for Clovis Media Inc. He can be contacted at 763-3431, ext. 313, or by email: [email protected]