I’m coming up on 45 units. I keep all the little pins in a turtle pincushion, the only memento I have from my maternal grandmother.
I never got any money, though. Just cheap donuts.
We’re having a blood drive at work in a couple of weeks. I’m trying to convince myself to sign up, but I’m a’scared of needles. 
They forgot to give me my 2 gallon pin last time…
I’ll go sometime next week.
There are two blood drives held in New Middletown (where I live, in cans you didn’t see it under my name), and they are held at my school, and I’ll be able to donate in May, but I don’t know If I will, because I’m terrified of needles. Really scared of them.
Shirts?? Umbrellas??? What is this craziness…. All we get in Central Wisconsin is a pin on your gallon marks.
Working up to my second gallon but I would certainly say there have been some interesting moments on the chairs.
Time before last they had a large number of new trainees and the poking was better for some than others. The guy next to me apparently thought the way to donate faster was to do bicep curls with the needle in the same arm. (ggghhhh!!!)
This last time when she was taking the little vials of blood at the end the last one just made the whole friggin needle vibrate in my arm. Not a pleasant feeling.
I don’t think they are nurses…they may have a nurse on staff but with the shortage of RN’s how could the Red Cross possibly afford to staff that many RN’s?
What I miss most was all the cute nurses flirting with you. Especially that one time I got a clot and then got all dizzy, man there were like 6 of them all over me. Wiping my brow. Rubbing my arms. Squeezing my hands. Heaven.
But I got some wierd blood thing and became yet another banned for life, oh well. And I was closing in on my second gallon too.
Kat, if it’s any consolation, I was (and am) still very scared of needles. When I was donating, I would tell them, ‘just distract me, talk to me, anything while you are putting the needle in, just yammer away’. For me it worked. They were also quite nice and put a cloth over the needle so I couldn’t see it (but they could still check on it).
As far as incentive, I would donate even when they did not give away ‘incentives’. But heck, if they were giving them away, I wasn’t about to turn down a freebie.
Our local (non-Red Cross in this area) blood banks would give away shirts quite often. I have
[ul]
[li] one from the Orange County Sheriffs vs. Orlando Police Dept. blood drive.[/li][li] one from a MAS*H-themed blood drive.[/li][li] one with a picture of the Grinch in a Santa hat: “Don’t be a Grinch. Share the gift of life” (sponsored by Universal Studios).[/li][li] one Renaissance fair-themed shirt from the Largo RenFaire (donate blood, get a shirt and free admission to the fair).[/li][li] one with all sorts of Florida critters (gators, manatees, eagles, panthers, etc) with little post-donation bandages on their ‘arms’.[/li][/ul]
as well as countless discount tickets and coupons to area theme parks, attractions and restaurants. Darn good deal, but I do it even without the incentive.
Periodically, they did a two-for-one: bring in a friend and each of you got a “I’m a blood buddy” coffee mug with a picture of two blood drops walking hand in hand.
Best was the teddy bear. I didn’t keep the bear; it was given to a child in the pediatric ward of local hospitals. I signed my name and a ‘get well’ message on a card to an unknown child. The card was attached to the bear, and the bear was delivered that afternoon to the hospital.
Of all, I got the best warm fuzzy out of the thing I gave away.
I’m proud to say that I’m giving next week, and I’m two donations short of two gallons, so I’ll have that done by the end of this year. I keep all the donation pins on a Red Cross baseball hat that I wear on donation days.
I once went in to donate between Christmas and New Years - the place was empty. The phlebotomist put the needle in my left arm, and could not get anything out. She and another lady moved the needle around a bit, but still nothing. They pulled the needle out, bandaged it up, and asked me if I would let them try the right arm.
They put the needle in, everything was fine, and then . . . the blood clotted in the tube, with less than 100 grams to go for a full unit. They had to throw away the blood.
The ladies felt so bad for me that they gave me a hat, T-shirt, and 3 holiday stuffed bears - 1 for each of my kids.
I don’t like needles either, so I make sure that I’m sipping a bottle of water as the insertion proceeds.
I started giving blood soon after my mother died, nearly 5 years ago, now. When I found out that I have the same bloodtype as she did, it took on a sort-of “duty of repayment” in a way – see, they had to give Mum a lot of blood in her last years. One of the memories I’d like to get rid of is her with blood-bag suspended by her bed, and the knowledge that another wasn’t far away.
My major depressive episode, and associated ill-health, stopped me giving for nearly three years. But now, I’m back in the queues, once every six months.
Man, did my hand ever nearly go numb in the donee arm last time!
I give blood when I can. I got a tattoo almost a year ago so I guess I will be able to go in Nov when they come around again. I have no idea how many times I’ve given. The people that come to work have changed once or twice and I never bothered to keep track. I know it must be around 2 gallons as I have a one gallon pin somewhere. Hell it might be more since I have an old card that has 1.5 gallons on it. It doesn’t really matter to me anyway.
I was reading thru this and about halfway thru it I read about a guy that does the exact same thing that I do… then I looked at the user who wrote it, it was me five months ago. Nice to see that I can recognize myself though.
On a similar note I am now a 2 gallon donor.
I am a blood cow. As of yesterday I am one pint away from being a 2 galloner. I am O-, and so is my wife, so we get called a lot. There is no pay for it, but if it is part of a promotional deal you can usually get some good swag. I got a cool little hand held battery operated fan yesterday.
I love the questions they ask you before you can donate. “Have you had sex in exchange for money or drugs since 1977?” “Let’s see, '77? Uh, no, I gave up blowing strangers for crack long before I turned 13, so no problems there.” They don’t mind piercings or tattoo’s if you had them done professionally and you have had them without any problems for more than a year old.
Never had a problem donating. They are always very professional and friendly.
I’ve tried to donate blood several times, but never with any success. The first two times, they could not get enough blood out to meet the requirement, and I was dizzy for hours afterwards. The last time, I was turned away because my last tattoo was too recent - I didn’t know 'bout that restriction. Now, I’m on iron supplements because of a deficiency, so I doubt I’ll be able to even when the tattoo restriction period is up.
In light of that, thank you to all of you who can, and do, donate.
I just wanted to thank all of you awesome people for donating. I’ve never been allowed to donate due to very low blood pressure and being under the weight limit.
Thanks again
My mom & I give when we can (sometimes I get rejected for low iron or hi temp) – we even have cool purple bicycle grips with white streamers! (that look vaguely phallic…)
{{matt_mcl}} - I guess I didn’t realize those questions automatically disqualify people - they don’t bother to ask followups? :rolleyes:
I keep trying to talk Mr. Pol into going - but he’s afraid of needles & figures they don’t need to deal with a passed-out guy who’s 6’ 4" 250+ pounds on the already-cramped Bloodmobile bus.