Please help your community...
12Summer is here with the traditional lull in blood donors being available. Many places across the United States are having critical blood shortages at the moment. If you haven’t given recently, now is your time to go. If you have never given, now’s the time to start.
- 13 comments, 28 replies
- Comment
I used to be a regular donor but I haven’t in the last year because new meds have caused my hemoglobin to be under the range. I’ll bulk up on iron supplements and try again.
@ironcheftoni
I’ve donated a few times, and when I had my thing, the phlebotomist would show up every morning at 4:30 for a blood test. I’d say, ‘if there is any left, take what you need’
My wife is O+ but she lived in the UK for several years so she’s not allowed to donate. I pretty much now just donate my hair when it gets long enough. I’m not sure if they’d let me donate blood these days after all of my… things.
@capnjb
They have changed the eligibility requirements a good bit. Cancer would be the most likely to rule you out. And if I remember correctly that wasn’t the issue…
@chienfou Thankfully not. Just a big pile of everything else
@capnjb @chienfou just an fyi. They removed the UK and European restrictions. The Englishman and I both donate.
@capnjb @chienfou Yeah a blood cancer definitely rules you out. I haven’t checked if it does that for platelets too (I have follicular non-hodgkin’s lymphoma, well and had 2 breast cancers too). chienfou do you happen to know?
People might want to think about donating platelets if they want to keep their blood for a visiting vampire. Those with myeloma, if I recall correctly, need several infusions a week and each infusion needs about 150 donors.
Interestingly researchers at San Francisco State, when they were trying to figure out how to make the neulasta (shot that forces your body to create more blood cells quickly - often used when people have chemo and their counts drop) equivalent for platelets (which they haven’t figured out how to do yet) discovered that the reservoir for our bone marrow is in the lining of our lungs (just like the reservoir for our gut bacteria is in our appendix).
I thought that was a pretty cool discovery. And in my uneducated opinion it seems to me the reason then why some bone marrow transplants fail or people get host graft disease (donor and one’s own “fight” with each other as each views the other as an invader) is that when they got their chemo to kill their own bone marrow (stems cells are part of that) all the ones in the lung reservoir weren’t killed and so when the transplant ones were infused there are both still some cancer cells left and the person ends up with some degree of host graft disease. To have a cure all the lung reservoir needs killed off to. Of course I am just using logic and biology doesn’t always follow logic.
@capnjb @Kidsandliz
No, I don’t actually know whether “cancer” in general is an automatic rule-out or they are specific. I guess a phone call would be your best way to find that out.
I know over the years they have changed the criteria for tattoos / piercings, as well as travel, a good bit. That last one is always what takes me the longest on my questionnaire. I’ve been to a dozen different countries in the last 3 years so it’s always a bit of a PITA to list them all and have to say how long I was in each one.
@capnjb @chienfou I’ll call. I was using the lazy approach and asking you here.
@capnjb @Kidsandliz
Possible it varies by center (lifesouth vs red cross eyc) but probably not…
Yep, this Sunday they the vampires at the Blood Bank are getting a fresh pint from moi.
@Schmive
Thanks. As a semi-retired ER nurse, I’m painfully aware of blood shortages. I just saw the FDA had approved a shelf-stable freeze-dried plasma…
@chienfou They’re so desperate out here that they’re letting a Southern Baptist donate at a Catholic Church.
Side note. Those of you that do this semi regularly will recognize that that’s not standard blood tubing. I was donating platelets.
And this was my 80th donation with LifeSouth. That represents over 10 gallons! Not counting what I gave to Red Cross before I moved to this area…
If you don’t do it for the altruism do it for the t-shirt and cookies…
@chienfou - To say nothing of the $20 gift certificate and Fandango movie ticket.
Oh, and sometimes they tell you if you’re prediabetic.
I usually give around Thanksgiving. Figured it was colder and tis the season of overeating, I would have plenty of extras platelets.
@pakopako
ISWYDT…
I would love to be able to bc I’ve almost bled out during an operation. Then the fucking hospital released me without checking my hemoglobins and I felt so off that I went to a better (different) hospital and I .5 away from needing a transfusion. I stayed another week in that hospital after the first one had me for 9 days.
Unfortunately I have a clotting disorder that disqualifies me and doesn’t allow me to go off my blood thinners unless I’m having surgery. So donate people, I may need your blood lol but really I might need it.
@Star2236 Heh… after two months in a coma and multiple, multiple surgeries, I have no idea how many people’s blood are flowing through my veins
I may actually now have super powers 
@Star2236
Yeah the blood thinners keep me out too. My daughter donated as much as possible because her nephew (my grandson) was needing infusions during his leukemia treatments. My sister in law needs to donate because she has hemochromatosis. Her doctor prescribed it!
@Star2236 Heh… Star is the kindest person I know with the biggest potty mouth around
I’m cool with that
@jkawaguchi
I had something like that happen to me when I first started taking the xarelto. I had to have a bunch of blood taken out and then a big couple transfusion after but I’ve been good ever since. That was like 10 years ago and my bloodwork has always come back fine ever since.
@jkawaguchi @Star2236
Hemochromatosis was an automatic rule-out until just a few years ago… Though I never really understood why. They would do therapeutic phlebotomies then throw that blood away! Such a waste!
Well since I am O-, I can’t go long without being called to give.
Yes the $10-20 gift cards, T-shirts (great to work in/ go to the beach, as you don’t have to worry about getting getting the messed up)Beach towel etc.
Yes I am up to 124 units. It is now Kool to see the progress of my donation & where it ends up.
Some SciFi cons have head blood donations there. It is called a blood feud between Starfleet and Klingon or whoever the bad guys are.
@mycya4me Good for you! My dad was O- and donated a lot. I was adopted so I ended up with likely the only A+ I ever got
Some of the questions you are ask are Wild
. Like Are you or have you been pregnant in the last few months, and you’re not able to get pregnant at all and she will not female and some other wacky questions like that
@mycya4me
I like the “have you ever been paid for sex” question… I mean I’m good, but I don’t plan to turn pro!
I think a lot of that falls in the “one size fits all” category. Given the current political climate I don’t even remember if they have my birth sex listed.
As I mentioned above, a couple of the things that used to be automatic rule-outs are now much more acceptable. Certain illnesses, tattoo/piercings, travels etc that would have precluded you in the past are now accepted with some caveats.
I read an article about a new shelf stable freeze dried plasma (Ezplaz) that the FDA approved recently. This doesn’t fill the overall gap in shortages (doesn’t ‘create’ plasma), but allows them to distribute the peaks and valleys better in principal.
@chienfou some crazy questions, Like have you made out with another GUY (male with Male), Can’t give, But Female on Females is not even asked, SO I guess they can give.
@mycya4me
I don’t think that question is asked by LIFESOUTH anymore…
@chienfou My local blood service was merged/bought out by the Red Cross.
I answered the call for blood donations, as they said there was such a high need in my area. With my last donation, there was an option to be notified when/where my blood was being used. My notification came through stating the blood had been shipped to northern California for use. I live in Fargo, ND!! That’s quite a journey to “help my community”!!
@tohar1
Fascinating!
I can think of at least a couple of reasons for that to happen. Depending on your blood type, and serology you may have certain antibodies that make type and screens for rare blood factors/antibodies a practicality. I can remember having blood shipped from S. Florida for patients in our hospital in Central Alabama that had certain cold agglutinin factors…
BTW some of my blood got collected in the Fargo area in the late '70s when I was living in Moorhead…
@chienfou I am “A+” blood type, but have never been told that I have anything special going on. I guess it’s good that it can help, wherever it can help. I’ve already got my next appointment made…
@tohar1
Thanks!
Used to.
Always tend to flunk the hemocrit or whatever screening now. And they dont like my (lowish) bp.
And I don’t feel great afterwards
And it takes an hour and a half because apparently my veins suck or something
And I always feel cold for a few days afterwards. Which means I tend to cough or sneeze all the time
After 50 years or so, I’m finally giving it up
@f00l
I don’t think it’s necessary to beat yourself up after 50 years of donations. Kudos for what you did do.
I think you can safely rest on your laurels!
@chienfou
Back in my evangelistic days, I used to drag my friends along. I told them if they would come and and sit and wait for me then I would buy them lunch or something.
This was back when I was young and even though they had to use the kitty needles on me, it didn’t take so long as has more recently.
I didn’t try to bully them into donating …
But … many did and for some it became a habit and that kind of made me feel good
Also, don’t assume the medication you’re taking makes you ineligible. I was always surprised/suspicious that even immunosuppressants don’t necessarily rule you out. (But your underlying condition might. They won’t take your blood if there’s a good chance you might need it yourself.)
Saw this recently.
https://montgomeryadvertiser-al.newsmemory.com/?publink=1a1edd9ca_13521f0