Our signs say that too, and that’s because each unit can be broken up into its components, blood, platelets, and plasma. Truly, it is a theoretical three lives, since it usually takes more than one unit received per patient, and at least at our blood center, not all units are broken up into all three components, but let it be known, lives are being saved!
I am also O- and CMV-, plus I have a very high platelet count (the first time I did apheresis, they were really excited about this. So I’m a hit over at the blood bank. I haven’t been able to donate for a while because of recent surgery & medications, but I’m cleared to go as of yesterday so I have to go donate.
Like everyone else, I say go donate. If they get more type-specific blood, it takes a little pressure off us O-negs (Who, if needed, can only take our own type).
Oh, Og, yes! Donate!
My blood is B positive which, while not rare, is sought by blood banks.
I donated for years at my company’s semi-annual blood drive until the same company sent me to England for a year. Because of mad cow in England, upon my return I was prevented from donating for ten years in the US. If this is true, how do the Brits get blood donations? Mad cow is such an over-dramatized problem that I’m amazed that the CDC or the American Red Cross and whatever entities that handle blood donations abide by this. It’s interesting that a previous poster from the Netherlands said that he/she can’t donate after being in the US because of West Nile in the US. How many of us know of anyone who has had West Nile? What are the stats?
I still get calls from various blood banks throughout the state for a B positive donation. I have to explain that I’m no longer eligible.
I’ve also discovered that I can’t do the full organ donation thing (for other reasons), but that my corneas are still good!
Me too! They won’t take my valuable blood cause I spent time in a country where some cows went wobbly!
I am a bit needle phobic but my ONeg dad was phoned OFTEN to give blood, I’m sad that I’m a regect because I was in Britain TWENTY FUCKING YEARS AGO! Surely if I was gonna moo like a bad cow it would have hit me by now!
There is a blood drive at my work place, but it is 48 days after my last donation (RC requires 56 days)
Brian
Nope. They will test your blood for type and diseases as part of their screening. They take extra tubes of blood with the donation and these are used for testing. If it’s American Red Cross they’ll send you a card later with your type on it.
I gave 2 weeks ago. Had not in years for no good reason. There is ALWAYS a blood shortage in the United States.
If you have the time, by all means go and give. Google your zip code + blood drives, or blood donation, or call your local American Red Cross center.
I think most people would be astounded to find out how many whole blood pints, and how much plasma and platelets are used in any 24 hour period.
Go ! Bleed ! Feel good about helping everyone !
Cartooniverse
Sorry for the double post. You should call the local Red Cross center. The form I just filled out stated clearly, " In total have you lived in the U.K. for more than 6 months in the last 5 years? "
You may be in the clear, you mad-cow crazy Doper ! 
I can donate, but it has to be a particular amount of time – I think it’s three months – after I get back from the US. This is, I gather, to give the virus a chance to kill me if it’s going to. Or something. I would have very little confidence in the ability of my family doctor here in the netherlands to diagnose West Nile correctly as there have been a total of six cases to date, all imported by people who had recently traveled to ares where it was endemic. (Doctors in Holland also have no idea what to do with poison ivy rashes or tick bites. Though the tick thing is improving as Lyme disease has appeared here. Everyone chalks it up to climate change, lol)
The timing issue would be a hassle except that it is handled in typically organized Dutch fashion – I call the central blood bank when I have my travel dates and tell them my date of return (or send them via the website) then they send me a card to come in once the time has elapsed. So I don’t have to keep track.
The rules have opened up a bit. Post-cancer patients once had to wait 5 years; now it’s one. Tattooed folks’ wait is shorter, too. In some areas, if you went to a “certified” tattoo place, there’s no wait at all. The quiz form is now simpler, and they don’t need to know all your prescription drugs.
Hmm. That’s different from what I saw on the website. I will definitely follow up with the locals on that. Maybe the website is incomplete or outdated. I was in the UK for about 10 months total, about 13 years ago. I woud love to give again. Thanks for the heads-up.
That it does. CMV retinitis does permanent damage to the retina; if it’s caught early enough, it can perhaps be confined to only causing a few minor blind spots. If not, or if the virus can’t be controlled quickly through medication, then it may lead to major loss of vision in one or both eyes.
I got inspired and signed up for the next blood drive at my hospital workplace, which is done by the Red Cross. My dad was O-negative so he was super-popular with the Red Cross. I know I’m type O from testing we did in senior year HS biology, but don’t know my Rh factor. (It’d be awfully nice if I tested as CMV-negative, as well.)