08/16/2022
If you are able to, please please please donate blood and platelets!!
Platelets.
They are a part of your life that you need to survive, but you don’t realize how desperately you need them until you don’t have them.
I need platelets.
You need platelets.
Brady, Brady, desperately needs platelets.
Why? Because platelets stop the bleeding.
Whether it is an external injury like a small cut on your knee when you fall down or an internal injury when you are hit with a ball, platelets rush to the point of contact to stop the bleeding. They help you survive the trauma.
This picture of Brady is an example of what a blood and platelet shortage in America looks like.
The minimum platelet level to undergo surgery used to be 75,000, but because of the massive shortage riddling our country, the minimum has been dropped to 50,000.
In most cases, the new minimum is ok for many patients, but if you have been following our journey for any amount of time then you know Brady, and others battling like him, aren’t most patients.
Brady’s new immunotherapy is making it almost impossible for him to hold on to platelets for more than a day. In fact, he went from 40,000+ to only 16,000 in just 36 hours.
But with the shortage of blood products, we just can’t get our hands on enough to help his body heal from his port placement surgery last Thursday. A surgery that, except for the bloody bruises from his body’s inability to heal, is flawless. An incision that was done with absolute perfection.
This picture is just one area of Brady’s body struggling.
Struggling to stop the bleeding.
Struggling to heal.
All over his body you see the marks of this second battle he has just begun.
Two spots on his back from the chemo into his spin. A spot on his right arm from the midline they ran. Two spots on his right elbow from the iv yesterday as well as a lab draw in the morning. His left arm is pretty much bruised from his should let down from his PICC line that came out to his left elbow from ivs and multiple blood draws.
So many nose bleeds.
So many bruises.
So many places needing to heal the trauma he has endured.
He is desperate for infusions to help his body recover all that has been lost. All that he isn’t able to create on his own.
I look at these wounds with a sad heart, but as he continues to smile I understand that I need an infusion as much as he does.
I need an infusion to stop the bleeding of the peace and joy within me.
Heck, aren’t we all in need infusions? Aren’t we all desperate to stop whatever bleeding is happening within us because of the battles we have walked through?
Some need infusions of contentment to fight against the pain of constant striving and comparisons.
Some need infusions of love to fight against their inability to see others equally.
Some need infusions of joy to fight against the anger that rises within them.
Some are like us. Some need infusions of trust. Of faith. Of understanding. Of every fruit of the spirit that helps us to know that God is with us. Even on our darkest days. Even in the depths of our battles. Even when our bodies are covered in bruises and scars from our battles.
We are all needing an infusion so our heart and soul won’t fail us.
We all need an infusion of Jesus.
Today I’m thankful. I’m thankful that no bank holds the keys to the amount of infusions I can receive because Jesus holds them and they are endless to those who follow him.
So I can receive limitless infusions for the things I desperately need.
But Brady.
Just like so many others in our country, Brady needs physical, and emotional, infusions. The keys to those physical infusions are being held by each one of us.
We’ve been talking to his doctor about direct donations and her comment was this, “the amount of platelets Brady needs couldn’t be provided by a few donors. It takes 4-5 donations to make up one bag of platelets. So just keep encouraging people to go donate wherever they are.”
So that is what we will do.
Lord, we can be missionaries where ever you place us.
And this is where we are.
Part of our new mission, help people understand how much they are needed. How desperately they are needed.
Wherever you are, please help the Brady’s of the world and keep sharing our story and educating others on the importance of blood and platelet donations.
And please keep donating yourselves if you can.
We will continue to pray that each and every infusion that is needed and called upon is provided. Whether it is physical, emotional, or spiritual, we pray that no key is ever withheld for anyone.
Would you join us in this?
Shields up.
Swords out.
Infusions in abundance,
Kristin
"Those who are gracious to the poor lend to the Lord, and the Lord will fully repay them."
