Does Giving Blood Hurt?

In My Humble Opinion
41

Not mentioned yet is another benefit: you get regular medical checkups. A doctor measures blood pressure, your iron-level, and you get a nice more complete check-up the first time. And they check your blood for any trace of STD’s. Not that that the latter is nescessary, with me, but somehow it always feels nice to be told I still am completely healthy.

But I agree with other posters: the real reward is the nice fuzzy warm feeling you get from donating blood. Never anywhere in the world are people so NICE to each other as in the donation center.

42

The standard needle when I was a phlebotomist was 14 gauge.

It’s not as tiny as an 18 or 22 ga needle, but is hardly a railroad spike.

43

I have Type O- Blood, so I get Asked to Donate blood, and I give Blood when I Can.

It does not hurt, I always asks the Vampire taking my Blood to not tell me when I am getting Stuck or when they are taking out the Needle, and I do not Look at either Time.

The only Time I Feel any Pain is when they Prick my Finger so they can Test my Blood Prior to Donation.

44

This discussion has completely inspired me to go give blood. There are two collection centers within five miles of my new apartment- once I get moved in, I will definitely go find one of them.

45

Before I got pregnant with TotLW, I was a semi-regular donor.

I’ve never experienced pain during a blood donation. There is the needle stick, but after that, I’d describe the sensation of the needle’s presence as a warm fullness. You know something’s there, and I’ve always felt a bit of “heat” in the crook of my arm. My regular phlebotomist – yes, I have one – has started putting wet gauze around the stick site for me, though it was never a necessity, it did make me more comfortable, and comfortable donors are happy, frequent donors.

The fingerstick is far nastier than the actual donation.

Weight limitations vary depending on the organization. In Pittsburgh, it’s 103 pounds, in DC I recall that it was 112. I never did understand that. Check with the collection organization in your area.

Know that travel to certain locations and body art/modification can require a lengthy wait, up to 12 months, before you are medically cleared to donate. Again, check with your collecting organization.

I heartily agree with advice to eat well before donating, but don’t just carbo load or stock up on cookies. Eat a well-balanced meal, (two if possible) and know that including some leafy greens and some fruit would be beneficial.

Avoiding alcohol, aspirin and smoking before and after a donation is also recommendable. Female donors are also least likely to be deferred due to low iron counts if they schedule their donations to immediately proceed their menstrual period.

Whenever there is a major catastrophe or an emergency appeal, people will line up to donate. (Apparently, people were turned away in Santa Monica over the past couple of days.) Unfortunately, the numbers of willing donors dip ever lower when there isn’t anything “happening” to draw the attention of the public to the omnipresent need for donor blood, and of those who are willing (less than 10% of the population) there are, unfortunately, ever higher numbers who are not able to donate because it would not be safe for them to do so for a number of reasons, some rather new. (An indication of the constant effort to keep the blood supply as safe as possible.) The problems of supply and demand are at their pinnacle in the summer, when the demand for blood tends to be at its highest.

The process of donating a unit of blood takes about an hour. Each unit can actually work to save the lives of three different people. It’s an amazing feeling when you watch that bag being unhooked and wrapped and you can think “That was so easy, and it will help someone, maybe more than one someone. Wow.”

If you can give, please do!

[ /Unexpected PSA Mode ]

46

Argh! That should read “Female donors are also least likely to be deferred due to low iron counts if they schedule their donations to immediately preceed their menstrual period.”

47

If you’re going to donate, i’d strongly recommend you check out chique’s links first, especially the one about donor eligibility. The list of conditions and circumstances that render you ineligible are as long as your arm.

I can’t donate because i spent time in the UK, for example.

48

In response to Shemem comment

If anyone finds out they are AB please still donate blood. it is true that AB blood can only be given to AB patients we still need that blood type for two reasons.

1: if your AB your can get A, B, and O, but working in a blood bank lab at a hosptial, I’m the one who decides what units to give you i would rather you get AB than any other because A and O is in such a great demand.

2: Just like O is the universal donor for Blood “Red Blood Cells” AB is the unversal donor for Plamsa. Any time a tramua comes in who is bleeding out we give AB plamsa since anyone can recieve it.

one other thing some people don’t think that they can donate for diffrent reasons. Let the red cross determine that, they do it for a living and they know better than you if you can donate or not.
DenniS

49

[slight hi—jack…]
I am a recipient of blood (A - +) every month.
I have a form of Anemia that requires this.
Also, I am blessed to have acquired a specific regular donor,
(whom I haven’t met in person)
and my gratetfulness for him is - trying to become the best I can be as a person.

For all of you who have endured the suffering of giving blood,
** Thank You!**.

It isn’t always easy to give, yet - it’s worth the personal joy you will feel!

[end hi—jack!]

—skyzoo

50

The interviewers around here use laptops; once you have donated, they can print out a form specifically for you every time you come back. We don’t have to sit and circle all the Y’s and N’s anymore.

I find that drinking extra water for two days before makes my donation time go quicker. And of course, there’s no better excuse to have Famous Amos cookies.

The kids think I’m a hero.

51

Dennis, you’re absoultely right of course, I should have made clearer that I went to giving platelets instead of whole blood because Red Cross told me that my A and B platelets were more useful than my AB whole blood because 1) there are more As and Bs than ABs and 2) because our local Red Cross supplied some of the platelets used for leukemia patients at a regional hospital.

I did not mean to make it sound like AB whole blood was not useful at all. After all, if an AB patient is getting AB blood, then they’re not using, say, some of the O supply that is the only type an O patient can use. O is very common, but if donations are low, who’s to say they might not run short?

52

I give blood every 56 days and have been donating regularly since I turned 18. Having said that, it can be unpleasant. My veins are hard to stick. The sticker (I can’t spell phlebotomist) often has to re-adjust my stick or call over another sticker to fix it. It is very painful when they have to pull the needle out, wiggle it around and stick it back in. Fortunately, this is the exception and not the rule. Since I’m O-neg, I know that my blood is in high demand since it is used for trauma victims when there isn’t time to “type and cross-match”. At least, so says the posters that the Oklahoma Blood Institute put up where I work.

I have recently started donating platelets and find the experience generally more pleasant. The needle is the same size but it seems that the stickers are more experienced.

Here in Oklahoma, in addition to the juice, cookies, cholesterol and blood pressure screening, you get a t-shirt with each donation. You can’t have too many t-shirts.