I always encourage people to try giving blood. The thing to realize is that not everyone will be able to for various reasons. Some of these reasons might be a permanent excuse from giving blood (such as having Hepatitis (A,B,C??) at some time) and some reasons might be temporary (low iron count, recently being out of the country in a specific geographical region, etc.). I know people who have fears of needles and found out that giving blood is not a big deal. Others can't handle it. My viewpoint is that everyone should try it at least once. Give it a shot (no pun intended. Well, maybe it was) and go from there. No need to feel bad if it doesn't work out. I've donated a couple of gallons by now and sometimes it has been good, sometimes not so good, but nothing majorly bad has happened. I even will take a peek at my blood going into the bag but that can be weird. I usually just read.

Fer"Tries to donate a few times a year"rick

> Since last year, I've really been wanting to donate blood. December 7th is a blood drive at my school, and when I first heard about it, I was extremely excited. I'm not afraid of needles or anything, I'm healthy, and I'd be helping another individual, so I was "ready and rarin' to go," as my mom would say.
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> It was not to be. I was at school today, reading the blood drive flier, and it said you have to weigh at least 115 pounds in order to give blood. Sadly, I only weigh about 105. :( I see the reasoning behind this rule, but I feel bad since I really wanted to help someone out by doing this. (I guess I could eat an entire turkey or something prior to the blood drive...lol.)
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> Anyway, I just had to get that out, because I'm kinda disappointed now.
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> ~Den-"I could've gotten a cute pin shaped like a drop of blood, too"Kara