So, I decide to take another day off work. It’s easy now, since I’ve got an offer coming in for twice the money.
To make myself feel good about being lazy, I drive over to the blood center, and prepared to give a donation. All vitals are well within tolerance, and the chair was nice and relaxing.
I just didn’t bleed. In the maximum allotted time for donation, I only managed to give half a bag. If we had known, they could have drawn samples, and used it for an infant transfusion, but alas.
So, I just threw away a cup of perfectly good Brian Blood.
Wait a sec, if you don’t fill up the bag, they just throw the blood away? This does not compute. Just because it’s not full, means the blood is useless?
Hell, at least they’ll take your blood. I tried to be a nice guy and donate but they wouldn’t take it because of some hepatitus vaccine I had. Makes no sense to me. “We don’t want your blood, you’ve been vaccinated!”
This happened to me the one and only time I tried to donate blood.
We had a blood drive at my High School so you have to compound the embarrassment factor.
Anyway I would not bleed. A little bit came out then it just stopped. They made me squeeze my fist over and over. They made me kick my legs. Nothing. Then somebody grabbed the bag and tried to pull the sides apart to make some suction.
When I came to, they told me that the needle must have laid against the wall of my vein. When they did the bag trick I hovered over the chair for a few seconds screaming then passed out for about 5 min.
Nothing impresses the chicks more passing out from pain let me tell you.
Probably because of the vaccine you’ve got hepatitus antibodies floating around your system. That’s enough to make you ineligible. Doesn’t matter if it’s from a vaccine or because you’ve had hepatitus in the past … the won’t take your blood.
Hey August, they wouldn’t take mine because I “have too much iron”. Sheesh, how am I supposed to get rid of iron saturated blood if they won’t take it? Personally, I thought it might help someone who was anemic, but apparently my blood “will just clot right in the bag”. They wouldn’t even draw it and throw the bag away for me.
“I walk like this because my blood has too much iron, not because I have a stick up my butt.”
Manservant Hecubus, do you have a relatively slow heart rate?
In the past, I’ve been used to taking at least twice as long to donate as other folks in the center ---- they can run two donors through another chair before I get done.
Lately, however, I’ve been donating when they do blood drives at my YMCA. I go right after I’ve done about 45-60 minutes of aerobics, and lifted weights a bit. My heart rate is elevated above what it normally is at rest (upper 50’s to low 60’s), my blood pressure is maybe a little higher than it typically runs ---- and I get out of the chair in about the same time as everyone else.
I’m assuming that this exercise effect is what has made it so much quicker for me the last two times. (BTW, the first time I attempted to donate, I got turned away because they couldn’t find a vein in one arm, and the one they found in the other quit bleeding after just a few cc’s)
I can’t find any information about this on the Red Cross site, but in the past I’ve been told they can’t use the blood if they don’t collect a full pint because the collection unit contains the right amount of anticoagulant for that much blood.
On a related note, the word “blood” starts looking very funny after you look at it for a long time.
That’s right – the other goop that’s in the bag is exactly the right amount of goop needed to mix with a pint of blood.
I don’t give whole blood anymore, 'cause AB-'s usefulness is limited to us rare AB people. (Yeah, so I’m a freak). Instead they take my platelets. Interesting sensation, getting your platelet-free, saline-solution-loaded blood back in your body. Makes you tingly in really weird places. Anyway, I bleed readily and I’m big enough they take two donations at a time from me. Apparently with platelets they can separate the A and the B.
Maybe they can do that with whole blood, too, but I don’t think I’d want them taking two pints of whole blood out of me…I don’t have that much to spare!
