Just to clarify, if they took the red stuff, they took red blood cells. Platelets are a completely different thing. Red blood cells carry oxygen in the blood. Platelets are used for clotting. When they take those, what’s going back into your arm is red. Platelets are used, as noted above, for chemo/cancer/hemophilia patients, but also for people having surgery, and for premature babies who aren’t creating their own platelets adequately yet.
I will keep donating, ivylass. I’ve donated enough platelets to hit my 6 gallon mark just recently. I always donate at least a double. In past, they let me do triples, but now the minimum weight for a triple is 178 lbs. and I don’t meet that.
Not necessarily. I had an ear-piercing done in Feb. and I’m not ineligible. If you have it done with a single-use kit at a salon or such, you’re still eligible. The tattoo, though, yes. Ineligible for a year.
Yeah, but there’s more where that came from. I have no anti-CMV antibodies, so they like me for the infant and transplant patients. I was heartily disappointed when I had to curtail the donations, but one does what one can. I just tell people I go for the cookies.
Good clarification, I should have looked it up instead of going by memory. Neither one has every applied to me and I know both questions are on the form.
Now they ask if you were in the Military since 1983 and that one I answered yes to, but they just verified if I was out of the States for an extended period or not.
After being ineligible for various reasons for a long time, I attempted to give blood once, only to find that my iron was barely - just barely! - too low. That was almost a year ago; I didn’t bother going back to any of the university blood drives, and sort of forgot about it.
But this thread has reminded me! Since my last attempt, I’ve started eating meat, so my iron should at least be closer to normal levels. I am scheduling to donate next week. Thanks for the reminder, Ivylass.
Does anyone have any tips for making sure your iron is high enough? I think my hematocrit was 36% last time. Should I be eating something iron-rich the night before, every day for a week…? Incidentally, if you normally have fairly low iron levels, it would be a bad idea to donate while you’re on your period, right?
I’d say yes. I got denied last time I tried to donate to the Red Cross and had never failed a hemoglobin check before. It did happen to be during my period and the phlebotomist said that was likely the cause.
According to the CDC website if you’ve visited any areas at risk for malaria you shouldn’t donate blood for 3 years following the trip. Certain rural parts of Mexico are at risk for malaria and since I spent most of my time in a rural area I wasn’t sure. It looks like nowhere I went carried that risk, though.
The tattoo and piercing were years ago so I should be okay.
I have been refused a few times for low iron. There was at least one time when it was my own fault; despite the fact that I knew I was scheduled to donate the next day, I had a light lunch and a vegetarian dinner. :smack:
I commented on this to the phlebotomist, and somehow she got the idea that I was a vegetarian, and gave me a pamphlet on iron-rich vegetarian foods.
Wish I could donate, but I have only one decent vein, and even at that, it seems to take forever when I have to have blood drawn for tests. When I’ve needed an IV, it’s been a real challenge for the phlebotomists.
Ivylass - I donated this morning at church, about an hour before your OP. So I will dedicate that pint to you retroactively. Our church has sponsored a drive every 8 weeks for the last several months, so I’ve been donating regularly lately.
I’ve been donating, although somewhat sporadically, since I was 17 (I’m 40 now) and I couldn’t possubly tell you how many gallons that’s been. I’ve had and lost probably 6 or 7 donor cards in that time – they used to write your donation dates on the back before everything was computerized.
While they may be archaic in their restrictions, they have at least done a good job of automating the process – they use laptops and hand held scanners even at the remote blood drives here in Michigan.
I’m AB+, so my platelets are highly valued I’m told. I should get over to the Red Cross donation center for pheresis – the statistic I was told was that my platelets help three times as many people as the whole blood donation.
If anyone out there is nervous about donating, I urge you to give it a try…it’s very satisfying when you think of the good it can do others. And if you’re the materialistic type, they are doing more in the way of incentives to get you to donate. This morning they had contest entries for a new Lincoln or tickets to races at MIS, a coupon for a free oil change, discount coupons for Cedar Point, and a free t-shirt. Oh, and there’s COOKIES! (Not that those matter to me…I’m there for purely selfless reasons, the common good and all that…no, really!)
As long as we’re talking about blood donation ineligibility: Does anyone know what the rules are for having had Hepatitis A? It’s been over ten years, now, no further symptoms, but last times I’d checked I was still told it was a permanent down check. (For that matter, if I hadn’t been inpatient for something else at the time, I would never have known I had it at all.)
-Loki (who seems to be stuck at 2 gallons lifetime donation.)
I know that Hep B or C is a permanent down check, but Hep A is very different thing. It’s not chronic, it’s acute, and (here’s what I think is the important thing) people get it a lot without ever actually showing symptoms. After having recovered from Hep A, one will have anti-bodies for the virus, but one is no longer a source of the virus. Now, it’s quite possible that the Red Cross is treating all forms of Hepatitis as being the same, but considering that they’re saying specifically that they’re concerned about B and C, leaves me room to wonder about Hep A.
I donated the day after I got back from my honeymoon, which was a few weeks ago. I was running errands and saw the blood drive and it seemed to me, what with all I’d been given recently it was only appropriate to give something back. In the past I’ve been rejected for iron levels which were too high as well as too low, but that time I was within range.
I’ll admit to being a bit confused by the fact that my previous cite specifically mentioned Hep B and C, but not A. It does say that if you had hepatitis “caused by a virus” (and to the best of my knowledge Hep A is caused by a virus) after age 11 then you’re ineligible. Maybe if you had Hep A before age 11 than you can still donate.
As I had mentioned in a previous post, when I started donating platelets they mentioned that since my blood tested negative for hepatitis antibodies (which I presume means I’d never been exposed to it) they could use my platelets to treat newborns. I’m presuming this is because hepatitis antibodies could have an adverse effect on newborns, but not necessarily on adults.
Our church has sponsored a drive every 8 weeks for the last several months, so I’ve been donating regularly lately.