In 1999 I gave blood and the nurse seemed very inexperienced. She missed my vein a couple of times. The next day, and for several days after that, I experienced nerve pain in the arm - like when you knock your funny bone.
That turned me off giving blood for nearly two years. Now I give again regularly, but I really do worry - can they harm you in any way if they’re not good? Can jabbing the needle elsewhere hurt you? I know a lot of people who worry about this and therefore don’t give blood at all.
Just IMHO, you could mention that you are a hard stick and could they have a supervisor or very experienced person do the stick. I tend to have problems (never very well hydrated so my veins are small) and know who to steer clear of. For years they would see me coming and defer to their boss who was familiar with me and was good. This was for pheresis, where it’s even more important for the needle to sit right for when the extra product is returned into the arm.
The worst damage I’ve had is bruising and this is over maybe five years of monthly donations.
Back in school we gave each other IVs and that’s how we learned. We would do dozens a week. Then, when final practicals were up, we had to do a crap load of things, all timed. A large bore IV was one item on a long list. So people would fly through that and stick as fast as they could.
For months, one could easily spot a person in that course. We had bruises all over our hands, forearms and AC space. (Inner elbow joint)
We’d jab the shit out of each other and at times, a lot of digging and searching for veins was required. Doing it in the dark is NOT easy!
Anyway, the point is that while arms would be sore or uncomfortable, the risk of serious and/or long term damage is minimal. If there was a really risk of that, we would have seen it. Some of these guys REALLY sucked. My arms may never forgive me.
I received a shot of demerol once. The nurse hit a nerve in my butt that nearly crippled me. It was like being shot in the ass with a flaming arrow. For about six weeks! I’m telling ya, it was horrible.
Yes, they can hurt you. The chance of it happening is pretty slim, so keep giving blood.
I do a pheresis donation every other week or so. The worst that I have had happen is a bruise from a stick that was a little off. If the nurses/attendees are halfway competent, you really have nothing to worry about. They do it all the time and are very good at it. If you are worried about diseases, dont. The equipment - needles/tubing/centrifuge inserts. Are used only ONCE and then thrown away. Nothing to fear in that area.
A family friend who is a cop routinely gives blood. Somehow the nurse stuck right through the vein, puncturing the other side of it. Nothing seemed amiss until later when he got home. He was watching TV and his nephew pointed at his “'bump”.
Huh? What “bump”?
There was a great big ball of blood beneath his skin sort of behind his elbow (I guess that’s where gravity pooled it). That’s, what? A hematoma?
It looked scarier than it was. He rushed to the hospital where they drained it. But it didn’t cause any serious damage or anything.
I’ve never been injured when giving blood, but I know several people who always seem to get a big bruise every time they do it.
I can tell you this though, phlebotomists make little more than your average McDonald’s employee. They aren’t exactly trained nurses or anything. I know they have to take classes and such, but the pay is crap and just about anyone can do it. So, just like any field, you have those who take care and others who just hurry you through.
But, I would encourage any healthy adult to donate. It’s a wonderful gift, and something that is relatively painless and takes little time for you to do. I try to give every three months, but they make it easy for us and come do blood drives at my company. That makes it a lot easier than having to go seek out a blood center and do it.
I’m hard to stick but I still give every 56 days. The best advice that I’ve been given is, once they mark your arm where they’re going to stick, don’t move your arm until the needle is in and the blood is flowing. They used to have to dig around for a vein, not anymore.
I’m hard to stick. My skin is brown, so you can’t see the veins, and I’m not thin. Even though my arms are fairly slim, there’s enough padding where you can’t see the veins easy. They don’t jump to the surface.
It’s the only thing that scares me about giving blood. I don’t mind the needle, or the enormous amount of blood they draw, or even the slight dizzy feeling afterwards.
Don’t worry, Kalhoun, I won’t stop giving blood though. I know how important it is.
One of my friends passed out after giving blood and nearly cracked his skull when he hit the table going down. Got a concussion, even. That was mostly due to his not listening to the people telling him not to stand up yet.
but, yeah, I think any serious side effects are really rare. Give blood if you can (I unfortunately can’t, though I wish I could).
In well over 100 needle sticks I have had one incident when the needle went into my arm into the vein and out the other side of the vein. Huge bruise, pretty painful, but I was eligible to donate again within a month. At the time, it hurt kind of badly for 20 seconds and when I bent my arm a certain way for about a week afterwards it hurt a bit, not badly but like a cut inside my arm.
One other time an aphaeresis donor near me was getting his blood returned and the needle wasn’t in his vein (or he moved and it had jiggled out) his arm started getting bigger and bigger and he said it hurt, he wasn’t screaming or writhing. He walked out in a half an hour. They caught it pretty quickly.
When I donate I get stuck twice: once for a draw, once for return each time. I’d say they have a little trouble finding a vein 10% of the time and need to re-stick 5%.
Great facts, but we are (collectively) saving 4.5 million people in the US per year with our donations:
I once signed up to give blood when I was in high school, but the girl turned me away, because she was afraid I’d faint. (I HATE needles, and I was really nervous).
Depends on the medication. Most notably, you cant take aspirin within 3 days prior to the donation. There are some others they are concerned about, such as accutane. I think it would depend on your state and you should ask the blood bank for specifics.
As CynicalGabe says, it depends. I take 3 prescriptions per day and can still donate. They’ll let you know if you’re eligible during their screening process.
A good phlebo should be mainly feeling for a vein rather than locating them visually. Surface veins can be very deceiving. None of mine are much good for anything for example. The class I attended had a rubber arm with plastic tubing to practice with before we moved on to each other; it felt pretty realistic.
Other people have answered, but I’ll go further and say that I believe most maintenance meds are OK. And, like everyone else said, they screen you and ask you very specifically about all medicines you take.
