Forgive those folks who hurt your fingers when you gave blood. If they were Red Cross workers, think of them as angels on earth.
I worked nights in a hospital as an emergency-call lab tech. When I was in a red hot crisis and all out of a specific type of blood for a patient in very bad shape, I’d call the Red Cross. They never ever failed me. No matter the time of night, someone would drive up (or even come in a cab! as I remember!) to the lab with the pints. And they’d keep coming, so long as the call for blood was out there. These folks were my quiet, unassuming heroes. If there was no blood available they’d send RC volunteers instead, who’d come in and donate their blood.
I never lost a patient for lack of blood. Everyone involved in this area, from the patient on down, owes a huge debt to those wonderful Red Cross workers.
When I questioned the Red Cross person about the switch to finger from ear lobe, she said that blood pools in ear lobes and the hemacrit reading from ear lob sample can be inaccurate.
This lawsuit indicates that ear lobe sample can show high enough hemacrit when donor is actually too low. US Goverment suing American Red Cross over blood collection practices…
Barn Owl: Truer words were never spoken. However, I was donating at a Blood Source donation center, the greedy corporate bastards who use the blood they collect to blackmail hospitals in need
Scary stuff about the inaccurate hematocrit, jdc, and helps explain a blanket policy for fingertips only. Though I’m still convinced that no one has considered using the back of the hand. But, my parents were fond of blaming my birth town’s proximity to Missouri for my stubborness.
Can’t answer for the haemoglobin but you can take blood glucose readings from areas other than the finger tips. My wife has diabetes and uses a meter that works on a range of sites - hands, arms, and legs.
They advise the use of fingertips if you suspect the level is low or dropping as the blood flow is much faster to the fingers but the calf and arm work fine most of the time. Definitely less painful - she would hate to go back to stacks of finger pricks each day
