Inspiration Monday

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope you all had great weekends filled with lots of fun fall activities!  I had a pretty good weekend, filled with lots of babysitting, running, studying, and a very special walk for a disease that is near and dear to my heart.

Before I begin, I thought I would try out a new theme for Mondays, Inspiration Mondays (maybe I'll even create a link-up - if there isn't one already!).  Our blog at my old company used to do this and I always thought it was a neat idea to get people going when Mondays can be so hard.  We all need a little inspiration sometimes :)

Anyway, this past Saturday I was very lucky to join a small group in a Walk for Myositis in Columbia, MD.  Myositis is a rare autoimmune disease that causes chronic muscle weakness and fatigue.  There is no known cure for the disease and no known cause.  When I was in high school I was diagnosed with juvenile dermatomyositis and underwent lots of different treatments to help me get better.  Luckily today I am in remission and feeling healthy and well.  

So this little walk this weekend meant a lot to me as there is very little funding for Myositis as it is a very rare disease, only 3-5000 children in the USA have my form of the disease.  The last time I checked the website we had raised over $7500 to support the cause so I was very excited to walk and help others learn more about the cause.

Well, Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day and the location of the walk was a beautiful park surrounding a lake.  The leaves were changing and it was just a picture perfect fall day.  We had a small but enthusiastic crowd and we set out to walk around the park.  It was just wonderful.  My parents joined me for the walk and it was great to just be outside walking for something that I believed in and wanted to support.  Although we didn't have the biggest crowd it was neat to be surrounded by people that have had similar experiences and understand what I went through.  It was special.  Here are a few pictures from the day:

Beautiful view across the water

Mom and I in our walk t-shirts!

Geese on the lake...uhh surenity

Gosh it was just so beautiful, I'm glad to know of this wonderful park now!  Do you have a cause that is near and dear to your heart?  Have you supported it lately?  Walks and runs are huge in October and it is the perfect time of year to get out and support a good cause - go for it, it's definitely worth it and you'll be glad you participated!

Thankful Thursday: Give another chance, give blood.

"Give another chance, give blood."

Source: google.co.uk via Rachel on Pinterest

Well this was scheduled to go up this morning but for some reason it never did...today I'm like up with Southern Charm for Thankful Thursday!

I know you hear those slogans all the time and most of the time they don't mean anything and it's hard to imagine how your little contribution could help save someone's life.  Yesterday I gave blood for the first time since college.  I was really excited to give blood for a pretty specific reason, my sister.  Why, you may ask?  Well because if it weren't for people giving blood, she might not be here today.

I've mentioned my sister often and she's even written a blog post on here.  She is my best friend and my hero.  Two years ago she became really sick while she was out at school in California.  They didn't know what was wrong with her except that she was bleeding internally and they couldn't figure out where it was coming from.  For three days they pumped blood into her body and it seemed just as quickly it was leaking back out.  I wasn't out there but apparently they had tubes coming out of her that emptied out into buckets and the buckets just kept filling up (I'm sorry if that's a little graphic).

At one point during those gruesome three days they began running out of blood in the hospital to pump back into her body.  She and I have the same blood type, O negative, the universal giver (that's why if you are O it's really important to give blood)  but if you are trying to get blood you can only receive O- or else there will be complications.  They had some on reserve but it was supposed to be for women going into labor and they did not want to use it up.

My sister was on the lacrosse team at that time and the coach had the idea that if they would release that blood for my sister then the whole lacrosse team and many others would go to the blood bank the next day and give blood.  The hospital agreed to do that and the next day not only did the Cal lacrosse team give blood but many Cal sports team and supporters, even the Stanford team came over!  Before we knew it people were giving blood around the country in honor of my sister.  The blood bank collected much more blood that day and the following days then they ever expected.

In the end they were able to stop the bleeding and Tighe began to slowly recover.  The Cal lacrosse team was even given a American Red Cross heros award that next spring!

So there's why I think it is so important to give blood - because you really CAN save a life!  It only takes about an hour and it's really not scary at all, you just sit there and they feed you yummy snacks and drinks!  Think about it if can and you haven't before, I promise it is worth your time.

Did you know...

...every 2 seconds someone in the US needs blood

...5 million patients in the US need blood every day

...1 pint of blood (you give 1) can save up to 3 patients

...and something that I think links Tighe and I even more - only 7% of people in the US have the Universal blood type O negative - get your blood checked and if you're O negative, GIVE BLOOD!