Catching up on some posts ——

Howdy Team Sam ——

John and I gave blood on Tuesday and Wednesday: he was poked and finished donating in 4 mins 15 seconds flat!  I took about 15 mins total and that’s with tiny yet mighty veins! 

Would love to hear if you have been able to donate blood or platelets: shout out to Grandma Linda, aka the 7 gallon grandma. Her brother, my Uncle Jim, who is probably in that range or close too.  Palon who is a dedicated platelet donor. Plus Team Sam NYC who did a group donation.  And Dawn Robertson who donated for the first time because of Sam. I apologize if I’ve forgotten any stories that you’ve shared with me (peri-menopause brain 🤪).

You can donate whole blood every 8 weeks, but the donation time is relatively quick. Platelets take a bit longer to donate, 2 hours, and their shelf life is 5 days *and* you can donate every 24 times a year.  So if you are able, consider setting a goal to donate 1 unit of blood this year. Or 2.  Or 1 or 2 units of platelets.    Your community will appreciate you joining in contributing to this critical resource.    And know that Sam got more than 14 whole blood units in 8 or so weeks last August (2022) and he got blood and platelets too during July, when he was first diagnosed, because he had coagulopathy (impaired ability of the blood to coagulate. Turns out this was the first diagnosis that they gave me on June 28, 2022. I had to look it up).  Most leukemia patients require many, many transfusions over the course of their treatment.     Sam also got a number of units over the course of the 8 months of treatment from September 2022 to April, 2023 which included the last 3 months of his chemotherapy/clinical trial, his immunotherapy Blina,  and his stem cell transplant (no blood products during blina immunotherapy which was December 24-March 16).   #FULeukemia #LFGStemCells #TeamSamStrong