Donated four units of convalescent plasma today...



I've never even donated blood before, but I felt I should do this. I'll probably be a regular donor at some point. I can donate plasma again in 28 days.

Tony.

You're a Great American, benny6!

Good on you!

I am surprised they are making you wait 28 days. I used to donate plasma in college for extra money. You could donate twice per week! I used to go Wed and Fri.

Awesome.

I'm a 30 year, 25-gallon club donor with the majority coming from plasma, platelets, RBC and the occasional whole blood donation.

I haven't been tested for the 'Rona and don't plan on it unless I have symptoms. The blood bank has been on me hard the past two months to donate more frequently because the number of donors has dropped for a variety of reasons.

If you can get in a regular schedule of donating, please do so. It's a great way to serve the community.

Simple way to give to someone TRULY in need. Way to go Benny!

Great karma! I’m in!

Seriously.... thank you for your service!

Good man!

Good for you!! How many people can be helped by the plasma you donated??? They give you an idea??

You’re a good man Benny.
You’re also about 20 years younger than I thought you were.

Thanks for being a good human. And I’m super happy you kicked the coronavirus ass. Good on you.

I've donated a few times. I would more often but I can't because of some of the places I travel to international. Lots of times I'm on a one year what after I go somewhere. Then I find myself traveling again.

Gave several gallons over the years, whole and pheresis. The won’t take my ne any more. I was in Germany in the 80s and may have seen a mad cow.

Good on ya for doing so...and really glad you recovered enough to donate. I know that a general request has been put out for convalescent plasma in the state, and has been used successfully, including on a doctor that had contracted COVID-19 and was on a ventilator for a month.

I've been trying to donate blood for the last few years and keep running into snags. The first time, a few years ago, I was actually seated on a blood mobile ready to go but the nurse on board, after reviewing my prescription meds list, made a call to a supervisor and the supervisor nixed it and said I first needed to get permission from one of my doctors. Months later I finally got my doctor's approval to skip some of my meds in order to donate. Then the regional blood bank either was sold or bought and discontinued their local blood mobile and greatly reduced the donation locations and blood drives.

A few weeks the local radio stations put out a Red Cross plea for blood donations so I immediately got online and checked for a Red Cross blood drive near me and couldn't find a single one scheduled within an hour's drive. There is a Red Cross location within minutes of where I live, but they handle regional disaster relief and don't do blood donations.

I tried a national blood drive online locator and it didn't show a single blood drive locally or scheduled any time soon.

At this point I guess I'll try one of our local hospitals as I have to believe that there must be some sort of need for blood and provisions to donate at a hospital, although I'm not sure what sort of precautions they'll require of donors during the pandemic.

Never thought it would be so difficult to donate blood, but thanks for posting this as it serves as a reminder for me to try again.

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I don't know how many other SF members have had it, but I encourage anyone who has, and recovered, to do the same if you can.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Good for you!! How many people can be helped by the plasma you donated??? They give you an idea??

I don't know for sure, but I read an article that says each patient can get one unit of plasma. Someone on facebook commented that potentially four patients can be treated with one unit.

Tony.

Good job, Benny. I've never donated plasma but I've donated almost 10 gallons of whole blood and done platelets about 10 times. I recently received an e-mail asking me to consider doing convalescent plasma and would do so but I've never been tested for COVID-19. I'd gladly switch if I knew I'd had it and gotten over it.

quote:

convalescent plasma

?

^^^ I had to google it.

"People who've recovered from COVID-19 have antibodies to the disease in their blood. Doctors call this convalescent plasma. Researchers hope that convalescent plasma can be given to people with severe COVID-19 to boost their ability to fight the virus."

https://www.mayoclinic.org/dis...-plasma/faq-20484383