Any of you folks do it or do it on a regular basis?

I'm planning on stopping by the blood bank tomorrow after a big meal.

Can you think of anything you want to warn me about or stuff I should know that I might now be aware of after doing lots of research?

Thanks.

I do it every six weeks or whatever the limit is. The Bloodmobile comes to a nearby church and they send me a reminder or call me.

It's a good way to get your blood pressure checked and it does some good for others. They will not take it if you have outrageously high blood pressure. Some days they wouldn't take mine with borderline B/P.

There's never been a negative to giving it except I have a serious aversion to needles but the women on these buses are the best at finding the vein they want. I've never been stuck more than once per donation. Donate, chat the girl up while they are collecting it and enjoy the music and squeezing the little beanbag. Drink your juice and go. No more to it than that.

If there was some full service nurse job included, it would change my view that it is just a rip-off based on sympathy. They sell the shit for hefty sums, I imagine.

@Bornyo I have a blood pressure cuff and am on blood pressure medicine. 141/93 as of a few hours ago. Lowest I get is about 123/83.

Thanks for the warning though. That might be a stumbling block.

I have O+ which is in demand.

Thanks for the reassurance. I am going to the main blood bank here and I already went in to make sure none of my meds would disqualify me. We'll see. My pressure varies wildly throughout the day. I tried once before but was told I needed to eat more than a salad 3 hours before I went in so I have a big lunch planned.

@PipeD It might be different here in Canada. It' something I am interested in trying. If I were after some dough I would go the plasma route.

The place is right next to my doctors office so it will be an easy stop. My main fear is that I get blood tests monthly and I have this issue where I stop bleeding. Last time they had to draw from both elbows and the backs of both my hands. I was quite bruised.

Try bone marrow next and leave a kidney on the way out.

My kidneys are shot. But I have already signed up for bone marrow. I am not too fat to do it but they need to match that stuff racially.

Even if I could, I don't weigh enough. I got shafted back in high school in Chemistry class when we could get extra credit points for donating. But because I didn't weigh enough, I got stuck with stupid assignments. Completely unfair!

Conq they will take your blood at the pressures you mention IF your meds aren't on their "no list". I was way, way higher than that before my meds and they took it because I told them I had white coat syndrome. Now I'm on fairly innocuous b/p meds because the shit even scared me, and they still take it and I'm higher than yours with the medications.

As I see it, you have two obstacles- your medication and the fact that you are "hard to stick". Though if anyone can do it, it will be the folks taking blood donations.

My meds are cool by them already, went in to check if I was eligible before. Just didn't have time or a large enough breakfast

I think it'll be okay, or at least I'll feel good having made an attempt. Will let you know tomorrow afternoon.

Apparently I am the youngest person my doctor has prescribed cardizem CD to, been taking it since 25.

But I think you are aware of my medical issues.

I'm not sure if being on insulin puts me on the No list or not. It's not an I/V drug, just one injected subcutaneously, but it still might disqualify me. Other than that problem, I hate to have my blood taken because they can just never find my veins. Sometime the phlebotomy girls just lie and say my veins "roll." That's one of those comments that makes doctors "roll" their eyes.

My favorite experience giving a blood sample came when I was on the road in New Orleans and had to have some lab work done. This older black lady was taking my blood and couldn't find the vein and kept getting more and more excited. "Oooooweeee! I found it but he running on me! I had him, but he running on me like a scared dog!!!"

I donate regularly, they have various types of donations such as plasma, RBC, platelets, etc. It's just a question of how much time each one takes to donate, and how much you have to wait in between donations.

My grandpa donated his whole life and the karma was returned to him in the end when he needed transfusions in his dotage, so that is my motivation.

Do it, at the very least you'll get as many juice boxes and bags of cookies that you could ever want.

What's Panzer's take on blood donation?

i would think you definitely wouldve ended up with extra credit.

Mission accomplished. I donated blood today. It was effortless/painless and I plan to do it every 60 days. They were happy to find that I am type 0+.

Thanks for the encouragement guys.

Apart from filling out the forms the whole blood letting took 7 minutes. Then I stayed there for a bit and ate some sugary snacks and drank a few juice boxes.

You were absolutely right. It was a larger diameter needle than I usually have during my monthly blood work and my phlebotomist was a pro. I did not feel it at all.

(sp? firefox spell check doesn't know how to spell phlebotomist so I hope I got it right.)

Way to go, bro.

No free lunch.

Thanks Chuck. When you donate did they tell you that your blood would "save three lives"? I thought that was a pretty cool thing to hear.

A heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you that has or will donate. I've been transfused several times. I can never donate.

I have a friend who talked the local bloodbank into giving his father his blood free...oh to hell with telling the story here's the link:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1876&dat=19980628&id=pUAfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=q88EAAAAIBAJ&pg=3101,5698796

I still give all my blood in his name even though he passed away a few years ago.

Edit: He's over 50,000 pints collected in his name now.

only because it's bdm....

Is that like bicurious?.

lol

I used to donate until they stopped accepting them. They said it was because I went to Malaysia. Too bad really, I'm O+.

Whatever might have happened there. Irreversible damage then.