Giving blood

[gigi]

@nearwildheaven

Do they still pay platelet and WBC donors? I had a friend in college who did platelet donations a few times, and my sister donated white blood cells too. It took several hours and required needles in both arms, and they got about $30 to $50 for each donation. I understand it doesn’t take anywhere near as long now as it did in the early 1990s.

Getting paid isn’t a donation. But yes, our blood donor room does whole blood or platelets (pheresis). It’s one needle for the draw and return now. But I fail at it – the return always has trouble. I hear it’s expensive for each set of tubing so I just do whole blood now. I asked the last time I went and I’ve done 84 pints over the years.

[Claude_Remains]

My local donation center is less than one mile from home. They have buses canvasing and still can’t get enough people to donate without offering gift cards to Walmart, etc.

I’m set up know to donate platelets every seven days and Whole blood every 56 days.

Feels good to just do the right thing.

[FairyChatMom]

I have terrible veins - the poor phlebotomists have a real challenge filling 2 or 3 test tubes, so donating any amount is pretty much never going to happen. Much as I hate needles, I’d still donate if I could.

[Melbourne]

Some kind of peripheral neuropathy, and they won’t accept me anymore. Apparently they are afraid to stick a needle into me.

I don’t really understand it, and it made me sad. My dad was given a lot of blood, and I would have liked to have repaid the debt.

[nearwildheaven]

@Gus_Gusterson

I used to donate whole blood every 8 weeks. A few years ago I started flunking the hemoglobin test so I slowed down to only a couple of donations per year. I donated platelets for the first time this January and received a letter a few weeks later which said that they had done a ferritin test on my blood. The threshold is 26 ng/mL. My ferritin level was 6. I haven’t donated blood or platelets since and don’t expect to be able to donate ever again.

It’s a shame since I was a champion donor. I have huge, easy-to-stick veins and I could fill a pint in 5 minutes. I have more platelets than most people according to a test performed by the Red Cross. It also made me feel like I was doing something good for someone else, which I don’t do often enough.

I hope they were able to use those platelets.

[jtur88]

Can’t. Had Hepatitis A.

[chizzuk]

Can’t donate, I’ve never met the minimum weight requirement. Maybe that’ll change as I age.

[Baker]

I give whole blood. I’ve tried donating platelets but my veins don’t want to cooperate.

Try reading about this guy in Australia and his donations. They call him the man with the golden arm.

This man's blood has saved the lives of two million babies | CNN

[Malleus_Incus_Stapes]

Tried to donate twice. Both times they turned me away because my iron levels were too low.