#51. Know your blood type

Here’s how I went about finding out this information in an email to my mother;


Me: Hey mom, what is my blood type

Mom: You are O- and I’m O+, your sister and brother are O- too if they ask.

Me: Really? O- is the rarest blood type and can give blood to any other blood type.

Mom: Oh, wait, it’s me who’s O-, you are O+. That’s why I had problems with my pregnancies. Thanks for keeping me on my toes.

Does that make sense to you? A person who has a blood type that can give blood to any other type has difficulty with her unborn child’s blood type? You would think it would support it. What my mother had was antibodies that attacked the red blood cells of her unborn children – luckily treated with a shot of .Rho(D) Immune Globulin. All three of us turned out ok – depending on who you ask!

So I’ve never even thought about what my blood type is for not really ever needing the answer. Then I read Karen Kingsbury’s book ‘One Tuesday Morning/Beyond Tuesday Morning’ where a case of mistaken identity after an accident was only proven by the person’s blood type.

So I find out, and over dinner I ask T “what’s your blood type” you know in case I ever have to use it for identification, and of course he doesn’t know, and claims his mother won’t know either. I guess if we ever have children we’ll find out then. Until then, I’ll identify him with his dental records – his recommendation.


I’ve never donated blood – and before you get all judgmental about my lack of being a good human being and participating in blood drives and the numbers of people I could have helped by donating blood in my almost 30 years of life I will tell you all that I do not do well with needles.

‘Not do well’ is an understatement. Try I pass out. I will tell whoever is taking my blood that they need to use a ‘butterfly needle’ (the kind used for children), because I’ll pass out, and they do, and I still pass out. Only once have I not passed out. The women kept asking me questions about my job and the weather and then out of the blue asked me the ridiculous question ‘did you see a bear on your drive in today?’ The question caught me completely off guard and just as I looked at her like she was on crack she stuck me, but because my mind was completely elsewhere I survived it, and she laughed at me. That’s one tricky woman who is good at her job.

I was also under the impression that if you have a tattoo you can’t donate blood. I’m not sure where or when I heard this but it is absolutely wrong. Here in Ontario you only have to wait 6 months. So there go all reasons why I cannot donate blood.

So anyone out there needing any O+? I’m your donor.