I am truly honored. I hope every blood donation I gave was able to help save a life. I always wonder about how the recipients are doing, and what circumstances led them to need a life saving blood transfusion. The blood bank keeps all of that private for security reasons, of course, along with the name of the donors who donate. I just hope it all helped.
This post made me realize I have never donated blood. Might do it just because.
Please do! Millions of people need blood transfusions everyday.
as someone who cannot, thank you. I depend on people like you to make up for me,
You’re so welcome! If it isn’t too personal, and you don’t mind me asking, why do you not donate? Is it a health reason, or a religious reason? I’ve known people who were JW and couldn’t donate. If you’ve had cancer, you can donate after treatment ends. Sometimes people think they are eliminated for life after medical problems arise, but the blood bank is actually pretty relaxed in some of their requirements. They even allow people who have just had a tattoo to donate, as long as they had it done at a licensed tattoo shop.
I’m not the person you responded to but for me its anemia and autoimmunity. Plus I have a tendency to faint when drawing blood.
Oh, ouch! I’m so sorry! I hope things improve for you. I know there are ways to combat the anemia and they can keep you in the chair longer to have you avoid fainting after the withdraw the IV, but I don’t know about the autoimmune disease. Is there any chance that will ever be remedied, or are you stuck with it for the rest of your life? Some diseases like mononucleosis disappear.
Thanks, its manageable but my autoimmunity is chronic. I get bloodwork done regularly and it’s tough to get through those draws. I know there’s conflicting advice on whether those with autoimmunity should donate, but I hate the process and never feel well after even those simple draws. I try to make up for it by being an organ donor but I’m not sure that mine will be worth much when I do go!
Obligatory also not the person. I had a relative die from the Mad Cow prion. They say nobody in the family can donate, even though she likely contracted it at work, as a surgical nurse.
I would have wondered if in the USA since you don’t have free healthcare surely they should pay you for your blood ¯ \ (ツ)/¯
I actually do have free healthcare. Or close to it. I have a free insurance plan because I’m so poor this year. The blood bank can’t pay its donors. They have to employ the people that draw blood and that costs money. The process of the blood transfusions are expensive to the recipients and they get billed for that. It would be nice if tax dollars could at least cover patient costs. I don’t mind donating for free if it saves a life.
Very cool!
I was recently donating while a guy celebrated his 200th donation!
Wow. A person can only donate about 6 times per year, since whole blood is allowed every eight weeks. How old was the donor? I mean 33.333… years of donations, right, and that’s if he never missed a chance to donate. If he started donating in high school at age 16, then he would be about 49 to 50 years old, right?
It wouldn’t have surprised me if he was in his early 60s.
One of the ways you can get your numbers higher is with platelet donation. A donation via plateletpheresis can occur every few weeks. They basically take blood out, process out the platelets and pass the blood back into you, which results in less of an impact to the donor vs a standard whole blood donation.
My blood bank has a separate donor reward list for platelets and plasma. They’re always in need of that, too. I can’t donate for that, though. I’m O-. They told me they want AB+ for either platelets or plasma, I think. I think my ex boyfriend said he used to donate for that. I think they take A+, too. It’s weird to be the universal whole blood donor type, but not be able to give to any other cause for donation (platelets or plasma).
i get a certificate after every gallon but who gives a shit about that…one time i got a stick of bologna after a single blood donation, that was the best.
Really? Where is that donor center? I have never seen a donor center in America that gives out meat items as a post-donation snack.
Sounds like the midwest tbh. 🤣
