I’ve swooned a couple of times, mostly due to the technician having to stab and dig repeatedly to find a good vein. Due to same, I’ve ended up with ghastly bruising (looked worse than it felt).
None of that compared to what happened after the last time I donated: I got a nice letter from the blood center informing me I was positive for Hep C :eek:
I’ve recently completed treatment for it and I should get the final, clean bill of health in mid January. If so, I would very much like to get back to donating. Does anyone know if I’ll be eligible to do so?
EddyTeddyFreddy, you could try taking an iron pill, or a multivitamin with iron say, two days before donating, just to make sure you aren’t right on the edge of passing the iron test to donate.
Also, don’t even think about not drinking lots of fluid before you donate, because of the peeing thing. Better to wear a Depends than to risk being dehydrated, because being dehydrated really puts you at risk for passing out.
I just reread you OP. Was the top number of your blood pressure really 100? that’s pretty low, even if it’s normal for you. Before I had a baby, my top number used to range from 90-105, and I sometimes got head rushes when I stood up quickly. My doctor told me to liberally salt my food, and basically do everything people with high blood pressure are told not to do. He said it would be good to keep the top number at least 100.
Maybe you should try eating something salty before you donate the next time, or drinking a Gatorade. Perhaps you electrolytes were just slightly off before you donated, and your lowish blood pressure made you especially sensitive to the effects of this.
I take atenolol for moderate high blood pressure; I can range up to the low 150s for a top reading, and it’s often in the 120s or teens. I’d taken my usual morning dose, and this donation was in early afternoon, after a lunch with reasonably salted food, about a quart of water (my usual intake at lunch and supper) and two iron pills I take every day, so my iron should have been topnotch. Could have been the blood pressure; could have been electrolytes; could have been who knows? I think I have a checkup scheduled with my cardiologist in January; maybe he can offer some thoughts.
My brother emailed this response to my retelling of the story to my siblings: “Time for young blood. You’ve done your part.”
This thread has me wondering: For all practical purposes, donating blood is a hemorrhage - an intentional one, but one nonetheless. Can your body tell the difference, or is it reacting just the same as if a robber stabbed you and you lost the same amount of blood as a blood bag’s contents?
(Although in the stabbing scenario, you’d have far more adrenaline, panic/fear, etc.)
I’ve donated platelets for 30+ years. After I turned 50 (I’m 63 now) I started having infrequent “woozy episodes,” as I call them. In my case it has always been after I donated two units of platelets and a single of plasma. That’s a fair amount of fluid loss and takes me a while to recover from. A “normal” double platelet donation requires a two minute stay at the chair before moving to the canteen. So I think age is a factor.
But it won’t stop me from donating. Age 69 doesn’t mean it’s time to stop. You are doing a good thing and should keep at it until the woozy frequency makes it clear that it is time. I’m sure it will happen to me but I’m not looking forward to it.
A similar (but fortunately not as pronounced - no fainting!) reaction to donating blood ~16 years back was how my wife discovered she was anemic. ETF, I’d recommend asking your primary care physician to check you for this. A simple blood test suffices. (Hemoglobin, hematacrit (sp?), and ferritin are the three big things to check. The first two tell you whether you’ve got enough iron in your blood right now; ferritin measures your reserves.)
I was not allowed to donate blood due to a false positive Hepatitis screening many years ago. Talked to someone at the blood bank my wife donates too and she said that if I hadn’t had any kind of positive test in 10 years I could donate. I was tested and it came back negative. I have donated a couple times since. The last time I went to donate they had more than enough O+ so I was sent back to work.
I did measure borderline low on iron measures on my next to last checkup, which is why my PCP has me taking 56 mg of iron every day; I’d taken it with my lunch a couple of hours before this donation. Nevertheless, I’ll bring it up to him next time I see him.
My veins are not easy to access. Sometimes they’d need to stick me 2-3x to get the blood. But the rules were changed recently, and they’re only allowed to stick once. If they can’t get the vein, then that’s it, they’re done.
Never donated blood, but I recall sitting in a waiting area in a military hospital for a blood draw. Typical for the military, there is little privacy, and we could all see into the booth where several people were having blood drawn.
One was a woman who was, for some reason, dressed up and with full-on makeup and hair. She was smiling and chatting with the phlebo, but when she glanced down at the needle, she just collapsed, slid out of the chair and onto the floor, which pulled the needle out, blood shooting out of her arm. I’d never seen someone faint before that.
