please bear with me…and I don’t want to scare Jester at all…but this has brought up a question and a fear that has plagued my whole life and may relate to my fear of needles and/or giving blood and/or handing myself over to doctors.
Is it true that a needle with even one miniscule bubble of air in it will kill you? Because man oh man you should see how I scrutinize a needle before they jab me with it. I’m sure I’ve been labelled an hysterical patient, but I DEMAND to look at the needle full of stuff beforehand…I’ve seen nurses give it a little squeeze, flick it with two fingers and then casually jab it in my arm or ass or whathave you while yawning and looking at their watch. They don’t even look! GOOD GOD! My life is on the line. Air can get in anywhere!
I went and gave blood once and they told me not to come back they said my blood was too “light”…it’s not very red at all, almost a dark pink. And I have low blood pressure (usually 90/70)
jarbabyj, don’t worry about it. I’m not a dr. or nurse but I’ve watched air going directly into my vein while hooked up to one of those pumping machines. I freaked out. The nurse laughed at me. Apparently it needs to be a really big bubble of air.
Nah, it’d actually take a pretty good slug of air to ‘vapor lock’ you…you’ve got nothing to worry about. Now, if you’re getting a shot and the syringe is half full of air…RUN!
It takes a lot more air than “one miniscule bubble” to cause problems. I wouldn’t worry too much, but in case you want to, here’s another fun thought! Does your hubby ever blow air into your vagina during sex? The blood engorged tissue inside is a great medium for transfering air bubbles to the blood.
As to donating, I’ve never, ever had any problems. I watch the stick, pump like hell, fill that sucker up, and get on with my day. Sometimes I pretend to be fainting on my way to the tables, but I’ve never even felt dizzy. They MAKE you have juice. I ususally down it like a shot, throw away that annoying gauze pad, wash off the yucky yellow stuff, and get outta there. YMMV. Ohhh, and if you want, I can tell you the story about how one time the needle wasn’t taped down good and kinda floated around in my vein! That felt–weird, and not good-weird like me, bad-weird like ouch!
Yeah, jarbaby, we were just discussing this at the donor room and it has to be a big bubble.
screech-owl said:
“I still hate needles, but I do apheresis about every other week – that’s two hours of a needle in each arm, giving platlets used for for burn victims and chemo patients, and most of my blood is returned to me. (Plus someone will scratch my nose when I need it.)”
I do pheresis too (down to one arm now and it doesn’t take much longer) but only every 28 days. Maybe they take plasma too so there is a longer wait to return?
Ditto on the look off into space during the poke, the towel to cover tubing, and most of all the juice!!
The “air bubble in the blood vessel” thing is called an embolism, and it’s the same thing as “the bends” that divers and caisson workers get if they decompress too fast. In the case of divers, nitrogen dissolved in the blood comes out of suspension faster than the lungs can get rid of it. The effect is the same as when you take the top off a bottle of coca cola - bubbles form in the liquid, whether blood or sugary water. They are carried along until they get to a point where they are too big to pass, and then form a blockage so that no more blood can flow until the bubble breaks up or dissolves. When the bubble lodges in the joints, it causes a lot of pain, and the patient often assumes a contorted position, hence the name “the bends”. Treatment is to put them on 100% oxygen and recompress if possible.
However…
The odds of you getting any air from a needle like this are pretty small. Your blood pressure is higher than the ambient air pressure, so your blood is pushing the air out, not the other way around. Even if you do have low blood pressure, Jarbaby, donating blood isn’t gonna do you in any time soon. Just be sure to tell hubby to blow in your ear instead…
I don’t know how old you are (or where), but when I went to PSU from '88-'93, I sold plasma over 100 times. I was there last fall for a football game, and in my wanderings downtown, I noticed that the plasma center was still going strong. I suspect they’ll be there forever…there’s no more willing donor than a poor college student.
I, too, have a scar on my inner right arm…I refer to it as my track mark. It’s hollow underneath, and there’s basically a tube of scar tissue right down to my vein. LOL
I’m with weirddave on this one. I’ve been giving blood since I was 16 (they ran the local blood drives at our high school), and I watch the needle and everything. I’ve never felt a trace of nausea or faintness–though my very first time, I drew great amusement from watching one of the football players turn an unflattering pastel green and pass out just from watching my bag fill. Needless to say, he didn’t donate.
In addition to the assurances offered by the others, jarbabyj, I’d like to point out that the needle at the blood drive is there to take stuff out of you. The traffic’s one way–if the blood is flowing out, air’s not flowing in. It sounds like you might be anemic, though, in which case donation is right out for you, young lady.
Dunno about that. Technically I can donate pheresis every 3 days, but I don’t want a huge build-up of scar tissue again. They had to use the back of my hand for the return tube a couple of times (supplies were critical, and they asked if I would/could donate more frequently for a short time).
What gets me, is people are taking money, and I’m giving it away for free.
Damhna - I met a woman in college who was also an ‘all-around emergency donor’ - she said the hospital had her class schedule so they could contact her. They took her out of class only a couple of times: she said it was funny the first time - campus security showed up to take her to the hospital (she was modeling for an art class) and she said the security guy was blushing the whole trip.
All in all, it went really well. The most painful part was the finger prick to check my iron levels, and that was only because I wasn’t expecting it. (The woman did it while she was talking, without even pausing).
Thanks to everybody who gave helpful hints like curling your toes and staring at a focus point, they were all tried, and they all worked, to the best of my knowledge.
All in all, I’m glad I did it, and wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. Plus, I got free juice and cookies! Huzzah!
Hey, thanks for starting this thread! I’m 17 too, and our second blood drive of the year is tomorrow. I’ll be giving blood for the first time (missed the first one since I was 16 then, like you) and I’m very glad to know the tips.
Actually, matt, I saw this restriction on the form and couldn’t believe what I’d read. I honestly couldn’t fathom why they would put that on there. I guess it’s a remnant of bigotry left over from back when everyone thought that HIV was a solely gay disease. Wonderful to see that we learn from past mistakes. :rolleyes:
It really pissed me off, but I didn’t walk out or anything, since I decided that, in the long run, I was still helping people.
But you think they’d do something about a rule that stupid.
I’m also in one of the increasingly large groups of excluded donors, in my case because I was raped by a person with unknown sexual history.
I personally believe that a large part of the reason for all the exclusion is to increase the price of blood so as to increase the amount of money the Red Cross gets for selling it to hospitals.
I think about this. But I always wuss out. I’m ambivalent about needles. My veins are less so, they hate them. I needed a full blood work up last year (about six vials of blood, one needle) My veins collapse quickly. And then I proptly bruise to my armpit. Both arms. Yea.
So I don’t give blood, I think it would probably be a bad experiance.
I’ve noticed this particular dumbass attack as well. I suppose I should expect it, living in Texas as I do, but I keep hoping that some day people will learn better.
I donate anyway. I refuse let someone else’s wrongheadedness stand in the way of doing good, but it really pisses me off.
And please bear in mind: pace Jester, I don’t want anyone to boycott blood drives because of this. Quite the opposite - I want to donate too!! That’s been the message of Queer McGill each time we’ve protested outside the McGill blood drives. Enough letters and enough nurses embarrased by having to define “sex” to a creepy sodomite, and we might get in too.
At one point in the past when HIV was new and mysterious, and seemed to disproportionately affect the gay community, the restriction made sense from a scientific cautionary standpoint. Indeed, it was endorsed by many gay spokespeople.
Nobody with the compassion to donate blood wants to harm another by their donation.
HIV is much better understood now. Screening procedures have been much improved, and there is a relatively new assay which identifies HIV in its hard to detect dormant stages.
About 18 months ago, the Red Cross had a panel of experts convene to consider whether they should reevaluate their blood screening criteria to include gay donors.
The panel suggested that a reevaluation was merited.
The Red Cross has not yet changed its criteria.
A couple of thoughts:
The original “deferrals” applied to male homosexuals and others exposed to them was prudent, and supported by both the gay community and scientific experts. It was meant as a temporary measure until the mechanisms of the disease and disproportionate effect on the gay community could be understood, as well as until adequate testing procedures could be put in place.
The gay community has been betrayed for their compassionate good sense and understanding in this restriction by the resistance to reevaluating it once its need could no longer be justified. The Red Cross has been more than suspiciously slow on this.
I hope the restriction is lifted for sound medical reasons and not political pressure, becuase this should be strictly a medical decision.
The rallying cry shouldn’t be “Let us donate.” It should be “Show us sound scientific evidence why we should not donate. If you cannot, then lift the restriction.”
In spite of this ingracious behavior by the Red Cross, please do donate your blood. You’re not punishing the Red Cross if you don’t. You’re punishing those who need blood.
