Just gave blood again, do you?

Muban said:
Weird. I suppose there could be variation from place to place but that doesn't seem very often, there must be a reason though I suppose. When I did whole blood it was every 12 weeks.
Click to expand...

I am every 12/13 weeks but the females are 26 weeks where I live.

Tefal said:
They refuse to take my dirty blood so no
Click to expand...

I don't understand why you can't give because I thought all donations were tested!
One of my 'pretend' gay mates isn't allowed to donate. I call him pretend because he has a boyfriend but the only sex that goes on is his boyfriend giving him oral - that's it so I can't see that being a risk.
 
Anyone know the cause of the nausea you can have after donating? Been twice and had it both times, they wouldn't go into detail but said they'd refuse if it happened a third time.

I'm the only member of my family who can donate due to my relatives ill health so I'd love to keep going.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
I am every 12/13 weeks but the females are 26 weeks where I live.



I don't understand why you can't give because I thought all donations were tested!
One of my 'pretend' gay mates isn't allowed to donate. I call him pretend because he has a boyfriend but the only sex that goes on is his boyfriend giving him oral - that's it so I can't see that being a risk.
Click to expand...

Its because it can be up to 10 weeks (or longer depending on test) before the virus is detectable.

Gay m3n make up about 50% of new infections but like less than 5% of the population so excluding men who sleep with men makes a big dtatistical leap in safety while only marginally affecting the number of possible donors
 
Tefal said:
Its because it can be up to 10 weeks (or longer depending on test) before the virus is detectable.

Gay m3n make up about 50% of new infections but like less than 5% of the population so excluding men who sleep with men makes a big dtatistical leap in safety while only marginally affecting the number of possible donors
Click to expand...

That makes sense then.
 
Just in for my second donation. Going to make it a regular thing now.

Don't click if you don't like needles or blood! :p
20160414_143955.jpg
 
Last edited:
I had this text on Friday, this didn't happen after my first donation so either it wasn't used, they didn't text me or this is something new.

My blood went all the way up to Manchester :D

blood-20160501-145327.png
 
I got a similar one on Friday saying my platelets had gone to Salford. What I did not get was the reminder text about the appointment. If they are only going to send one text then I'd rather it was the reminder than the thanks. 595.
 
another pint extracted, get very few texts. the last text I had was where my last one was sent and since then nothing, even though I only booked this appointment Friday. so not even a text to remind me to book in.
 
If you're in Scotland and are able to give but just haven't been for a while they're asking for people with O-, O+ or A+ in particular to come along and donate. Stocks are currently low.

Additional screening is now being done for female donors, so waiting for HLA & HNA antibody results to come back before I can donate again. I've never been pregnant and I've done quite a few matched donations where they need high-value platelets so I'm expecting it to come back fine. They're currently not accepting new female platelet donors in Scotland which I didn't know about until I was reading up on the test.

SexyGreyFox said:
Another pint tomorrow.
I've now been donating for 40 years.
Click to expand...

EDIT: Well done sir, you've no doubt made a real difference and saved many lives :)
 
There seems to be an issue with too many platelet donors of certain blood groups. I was told a couple of months ago that I couldn't donate the week I wanted because "they had too many A+ already that week". The receptionist was also telling me about having to phone platelet donors to move appointments - or even cancel them - for the same reason. I would guess that we might start seeing another attempt to push platelet donors back to whole blood. It wouldn't be the first time, although the last was around 1998. Other than that I've not heard anything special about female donors. It might just be your clinic - they seem to get a fair amount of local management control.

My local clinic is also about to start collecting plasma as well as platelets on the same donation. The new kits are already being used, but they didn't open the plasma tap. I gather collecting plasma lowers the platelet yield a little, so it's most likely to be aimed at people like me who give a good double, but can't reliably provide a triple. The good triples will probably stay on platelets only. Again though, it may just be a local thing.
 
The female thing seems to be in Scotland only, although looking into it further it seems like it's only temporary until they get the testing fully in place. Must be putting a priority on getting existing donors tested first.

Are the new kits different enough that you would notice? I suppose they'd tell you anyway if anything changes. I do triples each time so maybe I wouldn't have it done anyway.
 
Muban said:
Are the new kits different enough that you would notice?
Click to expand...


There's an extra bag, which in my case they left on top of the Trima. That's I found out: I asked what it was for. We have also gone over to collecting the platelets in two bags on the rack though, as well. Apparently some of you triple types were overfilling the single bag...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom