Donating Plasma

As an agent for Arbor, my desire it to respond to phone calls and emails quickly (even on my days off). If you were unable to reach me on Friday morning, it was for a very good reason. Here is the story behind Friday morning:" On Friday my wife and I donated Plasma. I have donated before for the Red Cross, but never got paid for it. My wife and I decided to see how much we could get paid for donating. After about 20 minutes on the web, we found a place in Portland that pays: Biomat USA. On your first donation you receive $25 and on the second $40. We don't need the money, we just thought if we are going to donate, why not get paid?

So we left the kids with the grandparents and headed off early to Biomat. We needed to stand in line 30 minutes before they open to make sure we got in, it is that popular. We pulled up into the parking lot, immediately I wanted to leave. There was a very different variation of people that I was not used to. My wife said "no, we are doing it" and we got in line. We waited in line for over 30 minutes, then they opened the doors and rushed us in. When we first entered, it looked like the DMV back in LA California, lots of seats with blue tones on the walls. After signing in and getting a physical, I was placed on a bed away from my wife. Now here comes the very interesting part. All these people there were doing it for money. My wife and I would have done it for free to help save lives. We just wanted some fun money to go out to a nice lunch. But these people really needed the money. One guy that was donating, needed the money for his 5 hour old baby. Another needed the money because he just lost his job. My heart was breaking the longer I spent there. I was so sadden for these people that "need" to sell a part of their body to not go hungry, or for their children not to go hungry. How blessed I am to have a great job, that pays well and allows my children to never go hungry. You would think that these people would be down hearted about their situation, but no! They were upbeat and encouraging.

Now here comes the embarrassing part. So I am 50 minutes into donating and feeling good when all of a sudden, I felt dizzy and sick to my stomach. The nurse looked over at me and began to run to me. She said "are you okay?" I said NO! She called over 3 other people to help. They put my feet up, began fanning me with my chart and gave me an ice pack. I thought I was going to die. They shut off the machine that separated my plasma from my blood and took the needle out. I began to feel better. Everyone was looking at me (at least that is what it felt like). I was so humbled. After I was feeling better, a lot of the people that were donating ask if I was okay. Again I was humbled, because when I first walked in to the place I wanted to know if they were okay.

My wife and I each collected our $25 and left. As we were getting out of the parking lot, a man (who had just donated) asked if we could jump his car. We did. He was the father of 3 children (1 just 2 months old) and his car was really beat up. He really needed the money for his 3 kids. My wife and I left and went to our favorite BBQ restaurant Russell Street BBQ. We spent $25 at Russell Street and then bought a $25 gift card for my in laws for baby sitting. The same money that we paid for BBQ tofu and a gift card, was the same money that other donors were paying for diapers. I am very blessed and I am reminded to be very thankful for what I have!