Celebrate life. DONATE BLOOD. Rock on.

Alright so if you're friends with me on Facebook OR a part of my every day life... then you must know by now that I'm hosting a blood drive in honor of Kevin. Is this the right time to be hosting a blood drive what with Kevin as status 1A on the transplant list? Absolutely it's the right time. I've been wanting to do this for awhile but never had the time.

The blood drive I'm hosting is not just your ordinary blood drive. This is a Cedars Sinai blood drive.  You remember them, right? Cedars Sinai is home to all the wonderful doctors & nurses that saved Kevin's life. Up to speed now?

Anyway, all the blood donated at this particular blood drive will go directly to Cedars Sinai blood bank. It helps to replenish their blood supply. Remember back in October when Kevin was in surgery and bleeding out of control? ... he needed 50 + units of blood during that one surgery. The surgery following where things spiraled even more out of control, he indeed required more units of blood. I can only imagine that during his future transplant...or any transplant surgery for that matter.. that one would require more blood. I could be wrong because I'm in no way a nurse or a doctor ..... but I don't think I'm wrong in this case.

What I'm trying to say is .... by hosting a Cedars Sinai blood drive it's just another way of saying thank you to a wonderful facility by replenishing their blood supply. I have a personal goal of getting 50 donors (appointments are preferred) at this blood drive. As I type this I've already got 32 donors committed with a scheduled appointment. Of these 32 people... more than  half are donating for the first time in Kevin's honor. They are our friends who are displaying courage by donating their blood... they're doing it because they love my little family of four (that's what they told me) but also because they want to say thank you to Cedars Sinai. They all were a part of this living with an LVAD journey from the very beginning and we're lucky to have them all in our life.

Please feel free to share this blog entry on your Facebook page, tweet about it, hang the flyer up at your place of work... by doing so, it would mean you want to say thank you to Cedars Sinai as well. If you can't donate blood for whatever reason, try to get someone to donate for you. If you donate blood at this blood drive, you will receive a coupon for a  pint of ice-cream at Baskin Robbins. Pint for a pint! Cute, huh? I love it!  So, think about it. It may sound scary or you might be squeamish at the thought of needles.... but think about living with an LVAD and then if that doesn't do it for you, think about getting a heart transplant.  Hopefully you decide to join me donating blood, in honor of Kevin, the love of my life.

From the bottom of my beating heart, thank you.

Here are the details of the blood drive...

Thursday July 7, 2011
2pm - 7:30pm
20946 Devonshire Street, Chatsworth CA 91311
(just west of DeSoto inside the building)
To schedule an appointment, please email Tracy (me): donate4kevin@gmail.com
Blood donor guidelines are noted below but can be emailed as well.