Just gave blood again, do you?

I give blood, they have just started texting you when your blood is issued now. So I got a text the other day saying my blood had just been issued to A&E.

I am kind of annoyed at my self for not doing this sooner in life but I have started now.
 
Just got back from my first donation.

Really easy, right arm no good but left was OK for the injection.

Totallly painless apart from the inevitable little jab at first.

Glad I made the decision to go, kudos to the OP of this thread for giving it attention.
 
Kelt said:
Just got back from my first donation.

Really easy, right arm no good but left was OK for the injection.

Totallly painless apart from the inevitable little jab at first.

Glad I made the decision to go, kudos to the OP of this thread for giving it attention.
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Good to hear, welcome to the club :D
 
Wanted to give blood when I was younger... But never given blood in my life.

I wasn't accepted at the younger age because I was too young apparently. Now it's by exclusion that I don't give blood (G6PD).

So it's a bit of a "Meh (You're not wanted), keep moving" type of thing for me personally whenever I see these calls unfortunately.
 
Due for my 8th next month, not sure I'll be able to or not though as i've been prescribed amitriptyline for my RLS it's only small dose though 10/20mg depending on how bad they feel.
 
I went in three weeks ago for my 600th donation, and was a little puzzled as to why I didn't get the traditional cert. I little Google provided the answer: they've rejigged the awards again.


It's not the first time they done this, but they've now decided that: a) no-one gets anything any better than a framed cert (which is fair enough) and the apheresis donors only get even that every 250 donations after the first 250. To point out: that's about once every ten years for me. So another six years before I get even slight recognition. I understand the desire to reward early donors, but not at the expense of the long-servers - especially now the prizes are so cheap. At least give us un-framed certs every 100. Even that takes my four years. As usual, loyal customers are taken for granted.


I particularly liked the bit of the report that said that they didn't set out to save money but wasn't it lucky how that just happened. Righto.
 
Didn't even know you get "rewards" for donations.

Personally couldn't give a monkeys about bits of paper.

That's not the reason I've started, and will continue, to give blood.
 
Meddling-Monk said:
Now it's by exclusion that I don't give blood (G6PD).
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What an interesting condition (I just wikied it)

The fact that it confers a degree of immunity to Malaria is a nice example of how "Darwin" doesn't necessarily always produce, what most people would think of as being, a "Ideal" result, Simply an "Optimum" one (In a Malarial zone people with Favisim will live longer and have more children, despite it being a debilitating condition that would kill them more quickly than non sufferers in a non malarial zone. (See also Sickle cell anaemia))

How does this affect your day to day life?

Do you have to be really careful to avoid triggers? (I imagine wanting to be a Veggie would be hard ranging to impossible, (see meat eating isn't always bad! :p I cant think of any medical condition that makes meat actually poisonous for the sufferers :eek:))

If you make a mistake, does it make you seriously ill or just a little uncomfortable?

Mind, back to the blood donation thing, I am surprised that there is no use for your other blood products (Plasma etc), even if the red cells are unsuitable.
 
Glaucus said:
iirc platelets not only can you give more often they're also count as double donations or something like that.
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Correct. There's a post earlier in this thread where someone summarises, but I've been doing platelets since 1995 (with 18 months back on whole blood at one point). For a long while it was 25 or so donations a years, but more recently about 12. These days platelets pay double, but for several years I did what was called a "dual" on the old Kobe machines: a needle in each arm. That was four points each time. In case anyone thinks this is over-paying, I should point out that a typical platelet donation is 60-80 minutes.
 
Strange all mine have only ever counted as one. Certainly when I've been given a couple of badges it's corresponded to visits rather than amount. I generally do triples, on a couple of occasions it was doubles. From what we have talked about earlier in the thread it seems to vary greatly by region.
 
You can drive after giving blood. After whole blood donations they like you to stay for a drink and snack to make sure you're feeling fine before you leave the session.
 
Muban said:
Strange all mine have only ever counted as one. Certainly when I've been given a couple of badges it's corresponded to visits rather than amount. I generally do triples, on a couple of occasions it was doubles. From what we have talked about earlier in the thread it seems to vary greatly by region.
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do people really care about the number though?
actually scrap that. its how pretty much every phone and facebook game works. nothing to it just some growing number.

must remember to ask about platelet donation when I'm next in at end of month, have i have plenty of time to sit around and do it.
 
Muban said:
Strange all mine have only ever counted as one. Certainly when I've been given a couple of badges it's corresponded to visits rather than amount. I generally do triples, on a couple of occasions it was doubles. From what we have talked about earlier in the thread it seems to vary greatly by region.
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I'd deffo ask about it. Both Cambridge and Manchester count platelets as two donations, and even out in the barbarian darkness it should be the same. I always assumed that it was universal, but Google isn't helping me find a definitive opinion ATM.
 
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