Be nice to me; I gave blood today.

So yesterday I was working in the galley when I got a phone call from the lab, asking me if I could come down to the hospital to donate some blood. One of the coolest things about living and working on a hospital ship is the fact that the crew is essentially a walking blood bank-- we don't store the blood ahead of time, but the crew can sign up to become blood donors and the hospital calls them as needed. (Heh, whenever someone uses the term "walking blood bank," I imagine these fat giant bags of red kool-aid with arms and legs just walking around the ship). In this case, a young man with my blood type had been in a major plastics surgery for two hours already when the lab phoned me.

I popped down to the lab for about half an hour-- odd to think that I work only three flights of stairs away from a hospital (obviously I know, but sometimes I don't know, you know?). I hopped onto a gurney while one of the nurses drew my blood. Apparently, I'm a fast bleeder, which I still don't know how I feel about-- in this case it worked out quite well, but what if I get into a street fight and a hippopotamus runs me over and I bleed to death in two seconds because I'm a "fast bleeder"? Huh, what then? I'm a leaky bag of kool-aid. Anyway, I bled, got myself a free juice box (score!), and-- best part-- I got to walk my bag of blood over to the patient directly. Seriously, what is that if not the coolest thing ever; when else would that ever happen?? Ben, one of the lab techs, grabbed me a pair of scrubs and he took me down the hall to the OR where the surgery was taking place. Obviously I'm pretty happy about this because I seem to be cheesin' really badly.

The patient was already in surgery, so when we walked into the OR, I couldn't really identify anything as it was his face that was being operated on. Most of tumor had already been removed and one of the nurses pointed to this giant mass of a tumor sitting on the adjacent table that was at least the size of a softball. An incredible sight to say the least, and an incredible opportunity to directly see to whom my blood would go. It was really humbling to realize the two profoundly different experiences that the patient and I would experience that day. For me, it was literally nothing to share some blood- a tiny poke, a picture-taking opportunity; for him, it'd be the day in which he received a completely life-altering surgery. Mind-boggling, I tell you.

In case you couldn't already tell, it was a good day. I'm a little (OK, a lot) in denial about the fact that I'm leaving already; it literally feels like yesterday that I got here, and that was nearly three months ago. But, if I have to go-- and don't quote me on this-- I'm glad I got to bleed for God before I leave tomorrow.