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[linnea]

Today I'm gonna go donate some blood. Before I moved to AK I had literally donated about 2 gallons of blood. However, we didn't have a hospital where I was at, and hence zero blood products where I was at, because storage was just totally unfeasible. Sometimes the medevac crew would bring some out from Anchorage, but any unused units had to be returned to the hospital within 12 hours or else it had to be trashed.

The first time I had my sisters donate blood, my younger sister almost passed out, and she was horribly embarrassed because the overly zealous blood techs made her lie down on the floor on this little blue plastic mat with her feet elevated (Trendelenberg position for shock). She vowed never to donate again, but the next time I brought her all these little juice boxes so she could drink while she donated, and the hypovolemia was averted. She has donated even more blood than me at this point, because she has been donating pretty much like clockwork every 56 days for the three years I've been gone.

We have boring type O+ blood, so it's not as cool as the universal donor O-,  but hey - our type O+ brethren still need it.

[theinevitable]

i have no idea what kind of blood I have. I have never donated because until very recently, or possibly still, I was severely underweight (based on BMI) and my mom told me that it would be "idiotic" to donate blood. this was probably true.

I am, however, registered to be a marrow donor. I did a pretty good job of guilting myself into that one (in a good way?).

[JorgeFabregas]

I have O- blood and donate double-reds. Makes me feel like a badass.

[linnea]

i have no idea what kind of blood I have. I have never donated because until very recently, or possibly still, I was severely underweight (based on BMI) and my mom told me that it would be "idiotic" to donate blood. this was probably true.

I am, however, registered to be a marrow donor. I did a pretty good job of guilting myself into that one (in a good way?).

As long as your weight is over 110 pounds, you're okay to donate.

Body fat percentage has nothing to do with it. Your overall body size dictates how much blood you have in your system. For a man of your height, one pint isn't gonna hurt.

I have O- blood and donate double-reds. Makes me feel like a badass.

Damn. You are awesome. More folks need to donate as long as they're not terrified of needles.

{Secret handshake}

O+ is kind of the comfortable cardigan of blood types, isn't it. Those flashy blood types can get lost.

We gotta get our own drink or something. The O-POS drink.

[jaydub]

I'm an occasional blood donor (O pos);  they put me on restriction for a year after I got inked up.  My company has quarterly blood drives, which makes it pretty easy.  About 8 years ago I signed up to be a marrow donor too (as an aside, if you're Asian -I'm not- you really should sign up for that.  There's a terrible problem with a lack of compatible donors).  A while ago I got a call that there was a preliminary match between me and a young girl for marrow.  I called back and agreed to the donation and got an appointment.  Marrow donation is less than surgery, but more than blood donation.  Apparently they get it from your hip bone.  About a day before I went in for the procedure I got a letter notifying me that the girl had died of her illness.  I felt strangely bereft.  Here was a girl I hadn't ever met, who chance had drawn similar biological markers for, and who I was willing to endure a painful procedure to assist.  It made me think a bit about how personal our society can still be, despite the doomsayers, that this agency of donation could create a relationship that I grieved, before it could even really get off the ground.

[AugustWest]

I donated platelets for years.  A little time consuming (~2.5 hours) but a good thing to do.  I had also donated 3 gallons of whole blood by the time I got out of college.  I haven't been donating anything lately -- I need to get back in the habit.

[theinevitable]

so, now that I know it is OK, I will totally donate blood. Rock.

[linnea]

I'm an occasional blood donor (O pos);  they put me on restriction for a year after I got inked up.  My company has quarterly blood drives, which makes it pretty easy.  About 8 years ago I signed up to be a marrow donor too (as an aside, if you're Asian -I'm not- you really should sign up for that.  There's a terrible problem with a lack of compatible donors).  A while ago I got a call that there was a preliminary match between me and a young girl for marrow.  I called back and agreed to the donation and got an appointment.  Marrow donation is less than surgery, but more than blood donation.  Apparently they get it from your hip bone.  About a day before I went in for the procedure I got a letter notifying me that the girl had died of her illness.  I felt strangely bereft.  Here was a girl I hadn't ever met, who chance had drawn similar biological markers for, and who I was willing to endure a painful procedure to assist.  It made me think a bit about how personal our society can still be, despite the doomsayers, that this agency of donation could create a relationship that I grieved, before it could even really get off the ground.

Damn. Hell of emotional. I'm sad that the little girl never got to see another birthday. That's really sad. However, it's really awesome that you're willing to help. I hear that donating marrow is painful, but it's well worth it. I should sign up for that.

And yep, any tattoo or piercing puts you on hold for one year. There's the hepatitis risk, as well as other bloodbourne pathogens that tattooing or piercing puts you at risk for. I'm able to donate as an EMT because I have never had an exposure. One of my favorite blogs is by a London paramedic.  ***ALERT, if you have a weak stomach do not click this highly entertaining and gross blog entry. It's about how my favorite paramedic was exposed to bloodborne pathogens at work one day.

[jaydub]

Cool blog.  I don't have time to giraffe through it at the moment - I assume he didn't seroconvert?

[AlohaDawg]

I'm an occasional blood donor (O pos);  they put me on restriction for a year after I got inked up.  My company has quarterly blood drives, which makes it pretty easy.  About 8 years ago I signed up to be a marrow donor too (as an aside, if you're Asian -I'm not- you really should sign up for that.  There's a terrible problem with a lack of compatible donors).  A while ago I got a call that there was a preliminary match between me and a young girl for marrow.  I called back and agreed to the donation and got an appointment.  Marrow donation is less than surgery, but more than blood donation.  Apparently they get it from your hip bone.  About a day before I went in for the procedure I got a letter notifying me that the girl had died of her illness.  I felt strangely bereft.  Here was a girl I hadn't ever met, who chance had drawn similar biological markers for, and who I was willing to endure a painful procedure to assist.  It made me think a bit about how personal our society can still be, despite the doomsayers, that this agency of donation could create a relationship that I grieved, before it could even really get off the ground.

I was going through some medical asshattery a few years ago and I had to undergo a bone marrow aspiration, which is probably similar to how they harvest bonemarrow for donation. It was the single most painful thing I have ever had to go through in a doctor's office. I only wish that it could have benefited someone. Basically, a largish corkscrew through the skin and into the femur. Local anesthesia, which is useless once the thing hits bone. A few more twists, insert the hollow needle and out comes a cylinder of red goo about an inch long.

The site hurts for a few days.

The tests are negative thank God.

I still wish that procedure could have gone to the positive for someone instead of just negating the negative for me.

[pmcd9]

Blood Donation.  More Blood Donation

[Arachno-capitalist]

I heard Chris Onstad donates blood using a magnum and a bucket.

[Golfhaus]

Girls I've dated in the past have been real gung-ho about donation, to the point that they could name off the top of their head the date at which they became re-eligible to donate again. I've never done it, and for some reason the thought of it makes me a little queasy. It's the same feeling that I get thinking about organ donation. I don't know why I'm such an ass about things like that, but I am.

[jay-ell]

Pedro I used to donate regularly before I done got knocked up.  Then I got out of the habit but he still goes -- not as often as he could but still quite regularly.  He is AB- (the rarest type by far) so he gets cards from the hospitals asking him to donate all the time.  He rotates between two centers so one or the other is always looking for him. 

I haven't donated but once in the last three years because I was pregnant, then nursing, then lazy, then pregnant again. 

It seems like pregnancy would be a good time to donate, though, because the volume of blood in your body doubles by the fourth month (I can hear it pounding in my ears when I lie down) so it's not like I don't have some to spare.  But the Red Cross says no.  I guess I've got all this extra blood for a reason, or something. 

[theinevitable]

psh, no way. Put those doctors in their place and donate some! Just say "I know what's good for my own baby! don't you go sassin' me, tellin' me how to treat my little shug-shug!"