Talk about losing a day. Donated in the morning, feel like I am in a fog all day today.

But, daughter (who has donated blood since she was old enough to do it) finally put her foot down and challenged me to do it, cant say no to that!

No good deed goes unpunished.

Sounds like you need a beer

Yeah okay, but did they give you some Orange Juice and a cookie? They do at the place I go to.

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:
Yeah okay, but did they give you some Orange Juice and a cookie? They do at the place I go to.

Yep, and I ate breakfast right after.

The first time I visited the Bloodmobile, I didn't realize the effect it would have on me for the rest of the day... I had a mountain bike ride scheduled. Suffice to say, I did NOT ride well that night.

Good for you for donating, Southflorida.

I donate as many times a year as I can. I don't notice anything later in the day. Maybe I just haven't had to do anything strenuous later on.

Kudos for being a great citizen! I've done it, and then played tennis. I was dizzy the whole time. Pretty stupid of me but that's how I roll. Take the cookies, OJ and go lie around lol.

My 1st time, I got up too fast, the room spun around, I went down quick. Nurse gave me the o.j. & a chocolate chip cookie. She got me back on the cot.

Good on you. If you donate on a regular basis, you’ll learn what time of day works best for you. I’ve learned that Saturday afternoon works best for me. That gives me a day or two to recover before returning to regular exercise. I’ve donated 25 gallons over 28 years.

Funny story. My friends donated our senior year on the same day as our first track meet of the year. We came in dead last in the mile. Freshman beat us! It wasn’t pretty.

I used to donate whole blood and be fine. Sometimes I even lifted weights the same day, but couldn't move as much iron.

Double apheresis (directing the blood from my veins through tubing to a machine that separates the blood components with a centrifuge. After the separation, the desired component of the blood is removed, while the remainder of the blood components are reinfused back into the patient) is a totally different outcome. Not only did it take at least twice as long, I felt like luke-warm dog shit the rest of the day. I thought it was a fluke the first time so I tried it again and same thing.

I've donated a total of 2+ gallons of blood via the every other month blood drives at work. However, myself and dozens of other coworkers have completely quit donating blood as the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center switched from having competent, paid professionals to students. Even at the end of a 3 day blood drive they're completely incompetent and push needles all the way through veins, miss the vein and root around (I've had worse bruises from donating blood than having surgery), and worse of all they'll laugh and joke about their mistakes in front of us since they don't give a damn that we can hear. If it was as important as they say it is then they would have professionals drawing blood from donors.

My friend works at MD Anderson Cancer Center (Top 10 cancer facility in US) and she donates blood at work. They use the same nurses that work on cancer patients (blood draws, inserting lines for infusions, etc) and she never has more than a 1mm mark on her elbow.

I started donating blood while stationed in Germany. Had to go to Frankfurt. No OJ and cookie. Double shot of bourbon.

Why did I go to Frankfurt? Because that was where my girl friend (now my wife of 60+ years) worked. Got the whole day free after the blood donation.

Just kept on donating until the Red Cross told me I was now too old.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
Double apheresis [snip] Not only did it take at least twice as long, I felt like luke-warm dog shit the rest of the day. I thought it was a fluke the first time so I tried it again and same thing.

I've done that just once. I didn't feel too bad afterward... but boy, does the Red Cross hound a fella to schedule the next one!

Good job SFL! The 1st time is the hardest. Now you know what to expect. It's not bad at all.

The first three times I donated, I passed out, despite cookies and juice.

There still hasn't been a fourth time.

I used to give whole blood every chance I was eligible, then they convinced me to switch to platelets and plasma.

While giving blood never bothered me, but that first smoke afterwards have me a buzz like I used to get when I first started smoking.

When donating platelets and plasma however, they use an anti- coagulation med that makes my lips tingle, and my body temp would dip at least a full degree.

I never had lasting effects on me, but it all depends on build, hydration, and blood composition.

It never bothered me, but everyone is different.

Went once. Thought it was a race. BP going in was 135/70. Stood up after my string cheese and almost passed out. New BP was 70/35. More string cheese, some cookies, some juice, and I could walk again.

Haven't gone back.

Great job, southflorida! Hope you’ll donate again in the future. There aren’t very many regular donors these days so every donation is very important. See my CUT for why.

When you donate again, I recommend using your other arm for the donation. Each donation leaves a little scar in your vein. Alternate arms for your donations and it will minimize the damage over time and reduce the risk of pain down the road. Being right-handed, I used my left arm exclusively for the several gallons but then got that phlebotomist that had never met a vein she couldn’t tap, even if she shouldn’t have tried so hard. I cut back my donations for several years after that one, and made sure to alternate after that experience.

Well past the 10 gallon mark. Like an oil change for the body.

I'm A+, which makes me a target for platelets. Donating is better now than in the past. About 10-15 years ago, you'd have one needle in each arm, and the procedure took about 105-120 minutes. Sure enough, about 30 minutes in, your nose would itch . Now the machines only use 1 arm, and I can use my tablet while donating (even browse SIGForum ). Takes about 65 minutes for a double, 90-100 or so for a triple. I've been doing platelets for ~15 years now, and have hit 48 gallons (platelets you can donate every two weeks). For the anti-coagulant tingling in the lips, most places will give you Tums, as the calcium help to counteract the tingling(having a yogurt beforehand helps too).