I’m usually a pretty mild-mannered guy but the Red Cross is starting to annoy me. They are getting way too pushy. I don’t mind giving blood but I like to decide when I donate. When I am able (fits my schedule) and eligible to give I usually do. I don’t like to be asked to give my blood.
I got a call from the Red Cross at 6:00 last night (Sunday) asking if I want to make an appointment to give blood at a blood drive on Thursday. I said I thought I just gave, which is true (it seems very recent). The woman checked and said I am eligible to give again starting Wednesday. They call me up before I can even donate again and ask for my blood within 24 hours of me becoming eligible to give. I know they need blood but to me this is going too far.
They don’t seem to care much about me. All I am to them is a source of blood. When they want my blood, I’m supposed to stop and give them a pint just because they want it. I don’t care for that at all. I should have told her to cross me off her list for phone calls but I didn’t think of it until after I hung up. I’ll have to do that next time.
You’d think you could show a little more appreciation for what the Red Cross gives YOU, Mister.
Stale windmill cookies are offered to me at EVERY donation! I also get to keep my dressing and the cotton ball I used to stop my ear from bleeding after they tested iron. Woo-hoo! Let us not forget the fashionable “Be nice to me, I gave blood” sticker.
If you give enough, you may even get a really cheap plastic pin denoting gallons donated!
Joking aside, I coordinated a blood drive last year for a service project. We didn’t think it was a very glamorous assignment, so we decided to throw our hearts into it. We deocarated the room with balloons and flowers, and made these awesome snack-packs as thank-yous to give to everyone who donated (or tried to). They were stuffed with homemade cookies, gift certificates to an ice cream parlor, etc, and were tied up with fancy ribbons. Martha Stewart woulda been proud. One guy walked in and said “I been givin’ blood for 30 years. I ain’t never seen nuthin’ like THIS before.” I’m not sure it was meant as a compliment, but fuck it, I’ll take it as one.
Wow! Only plastic? Those of us who volunteered at the OKC bombing site and family centers got a nice cloissone (sp?) pin with the four ribbons.
OTOH, my wife’s got some kind of dormant viral strain in her blood which is in some way life-saving to infants with some kind of medical condition (hey, we’ve been married 12 years; you don’t expect me to listen to her, do you?) and the RC calls her constantly. But they also gave her the t-shirt version of glurge.
stofsky, what your wife probably has is not a “dormant viral strain” but the opposite - she’s probably CMV (cytomegalovirus) negative. The only reason I know this is because I’m CMV-, and my blood is good for preemies, infants, cancer patients undergoing chemo, AIDS patients and “others with suppressed immune systems” who would otherwise be at risk from CMV.
But I understand about the annoyance of the Red Cross calling - both my father and I can count on a call every 45 days. Which gets tiresome, but we’ve given up and just tell whoever got the call that “the Vampire called”
“MB, what blood type are you? Maybe they make a special push for donors with some of the less common types if they are in short supply.”
I’m A+ so I don’t think my blood is rare (I forget the numbers). If I had a rare blood type or an unusual condition (as a couple have mentioned in this thread) then I could understand the constant calls for my blood. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-Red Cross; I’m just anti-Red Cross harrassing phone calls.
And of course, I love watching Héma-Québec’s heartwrenching TV commercials (Pleeeeeeease give blood! Pleeeeeeeeease! Look at this cute little girl who’ll die of some horrible disease if you, personally, don’t give blood!) when I know full well that THEY DON’T WANT MY FUCKING BLOOD.
Hey, you’re lucky – being CMV negative got me on the Platelet donation list. Like giving blood? Try having a large-bore needle in each arm for between 2 & 3 hours. Plus, you can give platelets about every 2 weeks, so the vampires call more regularly.
Yeah, the local blood center called me a while back about donating. I told them I wouldn’t because I donate when I visit my hometown. The blood center there will cover all blood costs for my family or whoever I name for a year while the local guys only give a blood “coupon” for twenty dollars off good for the next six months.
I may have pissed off the fates with this one, but a deal’s a deal. If they want me to bleed, they had better bargain.
Good luck getting taken off the phone list- you would NOT believe what I went though. I donate VERY regularly, and they were literally leaving me messages on my machine every to every other day- sometimes twice! Turns out the phone banks where they call from are in Buffalo and Rochester both, and they had me on several times. After about 4 weeks of my constantly calling them, they stopped. It’s like hey- I’ve donated very regularly since I was 18. I’ll be there- leave me be!
You know what pisses me off? That I really want to give blood. I go to the freaking bloodmobile they have on campus every time I see it. I drag friends along too so they can give blood. I always, always get rejected. Wether it is because I don’t have enough Iron in my blood. Had a cold in the last year. Got a peircing. ANYTHING! Then I see the damn comercials and new reports about how they don’t have enough blood, or they are at their lowest levels ever. I grind my teeth because they wont take my blood. Can’t they take it, then throw it out, just to spare my feelings. I don’t like the fact that they think my blood is unworthy…
:(:(
Yep, yep, yep. I donate occasionally, and I don’t mind doing it at all. But my schedule is hectic, and most weeks I can’t plan 1 day in advance, much less a week. It gets better. I’m O negative, the universal donor. So, they really want my blood.
HOWEVER, when I am sick with the flu, home from work, and can barely motivate to the toilet, calling me 3 times in 2 days to let me know I can donate again is hardly pleasant.
Oh yeah, I have a question-someone told me recently, that, because my job will soon begin requiring travel outside the country(mostly south and central america) that I will no longer be able to donate. Is this true? If so, I will make a point of going as often as possible before I begin this travel. I’ll be gone for about a week at a time, with 4-5 weeks in the states between trips.
LOL…they tried to get me to donate platelets, but I (rather literally) can’t sit still for that long - I start to have panic attacks. Not a pretty sight, when you’ve got those needles in your arms…
And, Lsura, I think it depends on which countries you go to. Ask the nurses at your local red cross.
