This brings me to a pet peeve - the Japanese Red Cross several years ago effectivly banned most foreign donorsby requiring you to read back the form you have to sign and not providing any in English or other common foreign languages. Expect to be sending a check ASAP.
Actually that timing’s a good thing. I saw some doctor on the news the other night who was saying something like “Yeah, we’re getting swamped with blood now, but those burn victims will need transfusions for months and I’m afraid that as the shock wears off, it’ll be back to business as usual.” He went on to say that there’ll be a big need in…um…some number of months.
Fenris
I can’t give blood for another two months because I’m in South Korea right now.
I guess I need to get a credit card and donate some cash.
Ayesha, I also have Hepatitis C. I can’t donate shit. 
But Mrs. Mojo is going today to donate blood on my behalf. My better half. Whatever.
I tried to give blood yesterday, but I have a tendency to anaemia. I had the nurse (what is the proper term?) check my iron first. The machine came up with a number of 12.4; it had to be 12.5 for me to donate. I’m going to double up on my iron and try again when the lines get a little shorter.
I have to wait at least another month, due to a piercing last October. However, next month I have to start my Hepatitis immunizations to appease the US INS! Does anyone know if that affects my donor eligibility in Canada?
I also get hypoglycemic (get a short attention span, sleepy, if I don’t eat every few hours. Also feel extremely lightheaded if the above is true and I try to work out.) and the only time I ever had to get a blood sample taken, it took her 4 tries to get a vein shudder
I hate needles, but I wanna do something to help
Not exactly. Gay men are considered at risk only if they have actually had sex with another man. If you’re gay but celibate, you’re not at risk. The reason they won’t take blood from sexually active gay men with negative HIV status is because it can take some time after initial infection for HIV tests to return a positive result. Thus, just because you are HIV negative does not mean you do not have the virus.
There are no restrictions on lesbians, however (That’s a common misconception of the rule.)
but those of you that haven’t given blood yet should wait a couple weeks. I just off the phone with my local blood bank (New Brunswick, NJ) and they asked me to wait until october. the reason being is that they actually have a surplus and nowhere to pu the blood. however they will need blood half-way thru the 56 day cycle of those that have given the last couple of days.
Great, that puts me right on target for my next available donation. I’ll try to get some others to go with me then…
Today was exactly 8 weeks since my last donation, and for the first time I have been told that they are booked up and can’t take me; not just for today, but for the next two weeks. Here in Northern Virginia they took my info and said they’d call me if an emergency should arise for my blood type. Once I left the donation center, I ran into one of the techs. We chatted, and we discussed how it will be good, in a way, to not be able to donate for the same reason that Fenris pointed out: they’re going to need blood on a continual basis. Hopefully this will encourage those who haven’t donated regularly to start if they are cleared to do so.
I used to give blood regularly, then the Red Cross came out with their “No Homos or Haitians” rule (pretty much how they phrased it in the early eighties in Montreal) - which they could have handled with a hell of lot more tact, but I digress.
Most of the time I was donating it was at university blood drives, and everyone was a student. The couple of times I donated during the summer, I was surprised to be the youngest person in the room. What I really noticed was that most of the donors were of the second world war generation. It was a regular habit with them.
For all those who responded to the call for donors I say good for you… and did you remember to mark your calendar for the next time you are eligible? I really hope the Red Cross (and the Canadian Blood Agency) get their act together and put together an effective campaign to get the people who donated in response to this major tragedy to realize that there are day to day tragedies that they can help with by making it a habit to donate.
Venoma, in answer to your question – yes, your Hep B vaccination will affect your eligibility to donate. The antibodies can be detected in your blood and may cause you to have a “false positive” when your blood is tested for pathogens. Right now, people who have false positives can not donate blood again – all part of the better safe than sorry rule. I know this because I donated blood two or three months after my last Hep B shot, and it triggered a false positive in my test results. I’m banned, even though the second test the Red Cross performed was negative. And that sucks, because I told the woman before I ever donated that I’d just had Hep B vaccinations, and she let me give anyway. So that’s one less eligible A negative donor in the world. But I’m not bitter 
Seriously though, be sure to donate before you begin your vaccinations, and again after you’ve passed through the “no donations” window. They’ll still need your blood then, too.
Matt - I said it once before in another thread, and I’ll repeat the sentiment here: you are a class act, my friend. I’m proud to share message board space with you.
- Rick