Donating Plasma

Factual Questions
21

If you don’t eat or drink before giving the plasma, it won’t go so good. You’ll probably be thirsty, but the IV and anti-coagulant usually give some fluids back. My major problem is low sugar levels, especially when I don’t eat something before going. Again, the IV fluids help, and at least you don’t faint there and have time to go home or somewhere and grab something to eat, although you will feel dizzy and weak. If you faint, they do give you first aid and sent you back to the donating area to rest in the chairs there. The place has to have some health care technician, and most of the people working know first aid.

I always try to go there after eating lunch, and try to have my dinner as soon as I leave the place and reach home.

I usually spend more time waiting to be called to donate than in the donation part per se.

22

Fluids are replenished in 24 hours, you can donate every 48 hours, twice in a seven-day period.

Do take care of the scar site. The first times after giving plasma, the arm may hurt if you move it, but this feeling will go away overnight. Also, after some time the arm no longer hurts after giving plasma.

23

How does one go about finding places in their city to sell plasma?

24

PPTA Source Centers

25

You should know better than to call someone a jackass in this forum. Don’t do it again.

bibliophage
moderator GQ

26

Does anyone know if income from selling plasma has to be reported to the IRS?

I take it it’s a bad idea to drive right after you donate then huh?

27

Depends on your physical constitution. I had a friend who used to drive me back home after he donated. If you eat and drink before donating, you’ll probably have no problem.

The pay is in cash, I don’t think people report it.

28

thanks Karl, I might try this.

29

i think i might to. the link above found me one close by. this is great.

30

I used to donate Plasma all the time. I think I got $25 everytime I was there and an extra $10 if I refered someone to donate.

The amount of Plasma they took was based on the donor’s weight.

I was always on the verge of going up a “weight class,” and I would have to donate more Plasma and that would take longer.

Everytime I went in, I would wear the lightest clothes I had and keep my wallet and most of my keys in the car. The only thing I would have on me was my car key.

31

I donated plasma when I was in college, I read text books while I was waiting for either, the blood to drain, the centrifuge, the blood to drain back in. They drained out a unit of blood, through the hollow nail. They would take the unit of blood and spin it down to seperate the plasma from the red blood cells. Then they would drain the red blood cells back into you.

After a few minutes they would drain out another unit of blood and repeat the process.

Pay scales are different. Back then, 1987 in Portland Oregon, they paid $13 the first time, and then increased the amount $1 for the whole month till you hit $25. They also gave you $5 if you accepted a flu shot or something. They wanted you to come back 36-48 hours to go again.

But here’s the catch, occasionally the bag with your unit of blood would break on the centrifuge and you’d be out of the game for 8 weeks. Plasma comes back quickly, but red blood cells take a while to come back. That’s also why they only take out one unit at a time.

They have improved the technology now and in the community I live in, which has lots of ‘retired’ people, they have aspherisis or something where they hook you up to a machine that does everything, takes out blood, gets the plasma, puts the blood back in. And the local video store provides free movies to watch while you are hooked up to the machine.

32

Yea, that’s how they do it now, Sand. Of course, most of the free movies are not the theater hits…

33

I worked for a few years as a lab tech in plasma donation centers where the plasma was collected for biologics. The plasma was stored at -30° C in a big walk-in freezer. A sample of each donation was put aside for disease testing (this was 20 years ago, just before the AIDS epidemic took off–we were mostly concerned about syphilis and hepatitis). Once the plasma for a given week was all tested, I got to go into that freezer to identify the cleared boxes of plasma and schlep them from one side of the freezer to the other for shipping, so I’m really glad we didn’t keep it at -70° C.

Not being a phlebotomist, I wasn’t allowed to insert the needles. But I was allowed to pull them out. Go figure.

34

For anyone interested, I donated plasma for the first time yesterday.

I’ve been wanting to donate blood since I got down here to NC and haven’t been able to find a Red Cross or anything that’s convenient (and I loathe the Red Cross) and my hospital doesn’t seem to have drives like my old one did. So there’s a plasma service place that I drive by every day, and since KG has talked about donating before I thought I’d give it a shot.

It was a good experience. It’s a very clean facility, the staff was super nice, and although it took longer then a regular blood donation (my first time screening took quite a long time), I felt much better then when donating whole blood. I didn’t get all blood sugar droppy or starving hungry or anything.

I’ve never had a cleaner stick. My arm isn’t even a little sore. They must use a MUCH smaller needle then at the blood bank. I’m not even sore to touch.

(I wrote that yesterday in my LJ- here’s an update on the day after)

Still not sore at all- I don’t feel like I had anything done at all. I forgot to mention that the place I went to has a bonus pay for new donars- $20 day 1, and $50 day 2 (within 7 days), then the same deal for the following week. After that it’s $15 for the first donation in a 7 day period, $30 for the second, so you can get $45/week if you want. I’ll go back because they need the plasma, I have good clean blood, and I could use the extra cash. Win/win!

I would encourage anyone who’s interested to give it a shot. It took longer then a regular blood donation (especially the first time- they do a physical and all). It was 50 minutes for me from stick to getting out of the chair, and they seemed amazed that it was that quick. Drink PLENTY of fluids before, as your donation will go much faster and easier (same for whole blood donation), and eat beforehand. I also drank extra when I got home last night.

All in all it was a little time out of my day, it was air conditioned to the point of frigid (which was nice, because it was 95 degrees out), and I was no worse for the wear and $20 richer. I can think of worse ways to earn $20 that don’t help anyone in need :slight_smile: