[QUOTE=gabriela]
The FDA is afraid of “motivated donors”.
[/QUOTE]
“Are you sexually aroused by the thought of giving blood? Then you ought to know you are a stinking pervert and shall not be molesting any of our fine steel needles or long, plastic tubes or STOP LOOKING AT ME THAT WAY!”
Or:
“Keith Richards Spring Cleaning! ALL BLOOD MUST GO! First 50 recipients get complimentary shot of naltrexone.”
[QUOTE=easy e]
One thing that helps, with the American Red Cross at least, is that after they’ve gone over the questionnaire and do the checkup, they leave you with a sheet of paper with two barcoded stickers. One stands for “use my blood” and the other “do not use my blood.” After you peel the sticker off, you can’t tell which is which. I presume this is so that if someone is too embarrassed to admit to risky behavior, they can put that sticker on their paperwork, go through the donation process, and know that their blood won’t make it into the supply.
[/QUOTE]
What a great idea! Then when the group pressures you to go donate blood with them, you don’t have to look like an ass. And you can suffer symbolically for the cause. 
You must weigh at least 110 Lbs to be eligible for blood donation for your own safety. Blood volume is in proportion to body weight. Donors who weight less than 110Lbs may not tolerate the removal of the required volume of blood as well as those who weigh more than 110Lbs. There is no upper weight limit as long as your weight is not higher than the weight limit of the donor bed/lounge you are using.
They don’t do this any more. I’m not certain why; it may be that the stickers were confusing a lot of folks and they were getting too many false positives.
Funny thing was, last time I went - less than a month ago - the questionnaire is no longer as private as it once was. I mean, they used to just leave the clipboard with you, right? Did they go over the questions with you? I can’t remember. But now they just load it up on a little computer screen and go through it fast.
Then again, I went to a real Red Cross center and not one of those little hastily set up clinics, so maybe they have better equipment there.
And no, Chronos is right. They no longer have that sticker. Actually, there was very little paperwork. Most of it was about the procedure.
[QUOTE=gabriela]
Hereditary hemochromatosis is a disease in which your body sucks iron out of your diet as if you had a beach-sweeping metal detector in your stomach. People with this disease overload themselves on iron, and may die of it in their forties (for men; women are relatively protected because they bleed a little every month). Until they develop arthritis, cirrhosis, heart disease, etc. from iron overload, they are perfectly healthy. The only good way to get the iron out of their bodies is to take blood out of them.
In Europe their blood is taken from them for free and is used in blood banks. In America their insurance has to pay for the blood removal, and the blood is either discarded, or used in research. Why? The FDA is afraid of “motivated donors”.
Stupid, says I. Stupid.
[/QUOTE]
Insanely stupid. A friend of mine has HH, and, at least for a while there, he had to have his blood drawn monthly. Since they couldn’t use his blood thanks to this inane guideline, he had to pay for it- at a hundred bucks a draw.
So, instead of using his blood, they instead threw it away and charged him $100 to do exactly what they were doing with all the donors.
Stupid.
[QUOTE=xiix]
You must weigh at least 110 Lbs to be eligible for blood donation for your own safety. Blood volume is in proportion to body weight. Donors who weight less than 110Lbs may not tolerate the removal of the required volume of blood as well as those who weigh more than 110Lbs. There is no upper weight limit as long as your weight is not higher than the weight limit of the donor bed/lounge you are using.
[/QUOTE]
Until I had my youngest son, I didn’t weigh enough to give blood. Now I weigh 115-118 pounds. I can donate blood!
Now, if I could just shake that overwhelming phobia of needles…
[QUOTE=Anaamika]
Funny thing was, last time I went - less than a month ago - the questionnaire is no longer as private as it once was. I mean, they used to just leave the clipboard with you, right? Did they go over the questions with you? I can’t remember. But now they just load it up on a little computer screen and go through it fast.
Then again, I went to a real Red Cross center and not one of those little hastily set up clinics, so maybe they have better equipment there.
And no, Chronos is right. They no longer have that sticker. Actually, there was very little paperwork. Most of it was about the procedure.
[/QUOTE]
It’s varied in the last 10 years (when I first became eligible to donate). When I first started, a Red Cross worker would read all of the questions to you. Then there was a phase where you would fill out the form, and the Red Cross worker would go over it. When the bloodmobile came a couple months ago, they also used the computer. I didn’t get the paper form until they printed it out (with my info and answers). I thought I used the sticker thing, but I could be mistaken. I did think that sticker was a good idea for small town blood drives–especially if the worker giving you the questionnaire was one of the local gossips.
It also may vary depending on what region you’re in.