Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

d-usa wrote:

Tibbsy wrote:

purplefood wrote:

Tibbsy wrote:I gave blood once, a long time ago... I was quite young at the time... (Is there an age limit? I remember going with my Dad...)

My Mum and Dad are both Organ Donors; I would be the same, I'm just not sure if the relevant forms have been filled in

AFAIK 17 is the minimum age...

Hmm...

Maybe theres a parent/guardian thing involved though... I can't have been much more than 8... So unless I went there for something completely unrelated while my Dad gave blood I don't know... I'm sure I did though...

Did your 'blood donation' end up with you waking up in an ice bath in a shady hotel?

No, I'm sure I would remember that... Anyway AFAIK I still have both of my kidneys

Tibbsy wrote:

purplefood wrote:

Tibbsy wrote:I gave blood once, a long time ago... I was quite young at the time... (Is there an age limit? I remember going with my Dad...)

My Mum and Dad are both Organ Donors; I would be the same, I'm just not sure if the relevant forms have been filled in

AFAIK 17 is the minimum age...

Hmm...

Maybe theres a parent/guardian thing involved though... I can't have been much more than 8... So unless I went there for something completely unrelated while my Dad gave blood I don't know... I'm sure I did though...

You probably didn't give blood then...
I just checked their website.
Along with stating the new guidelines for female donors it also has the minimum age for male donors.
Which is 17...
http://www.blood.co.uk/can-i-give-blood/who-can-give-blood/
So maybe D-Usa is right and they stole your kidney...

Gitzbitah wrote:AB+ blood is not in high demand

You would be incorrect. AB blood is in high demand because you've got great plasma.

The reason people have transfusion reactions are because of antibodies reacting to sugars (A or B) on the red blood cells. People with type A blood have anti-B antibodies, type B have anti-A, and type O have anti-A and anti-B antibodies. If you give a type A person red blood cells from a type B, their anti-B antibodies will attack the red blood cells, causing a transfusion reaction.

It's just the opposite with plasma transfusions (everything but the red blood cells). Plasma includes your antibodies, so a type A person who donates plasma would give anti-B antibodies and is unsuitable for type B or type AB. Type B plasma is unsuitable A or AB. Type O plasma can only be given to other Os (since they have both anti-A and anti-B antibodies). But type AB donors have plasma that can be used on anyone.

But really, every type of blood is in high demand because while type O make up ~35% of potential donors, type O also make up ~35% of potential recipients. And blood banks prefer to give corresponding types (A+ gets A+) to reduce the chance of transfusion reactions.

My wife does this stuff for a living, I get to hear a lot of it. Sometimes it sinks in

That was interesting Biccat, thanks for the post.

Have given a couple of times. Last time I was rather dumb (or perhaps nonchalant after not really being affected on the previous occasions) and gave blood after not eating, then following that went outside and had a cigarette (again, having not had one all morning). The resulting head rush put me straight onto my back and staring up at the clouds, although luckily I had walked around the corner so no-one saw my idiotic behaviour !

I'm sure it was a combination of not eating enough as well, but that should be a warning to anyone donating - if you smoke, be careful after donating !

gave blood after not eating,

Funny, I'm always requested to not eat anything in the 12 previous hours.

At most hospitals and clinics I'm given some crackers and a coffee or tea where I PUT ALL THE SUGAR after I've donated.

I am signed up with the NHS and get a text any time they are collecting. I've always had an essay or revision to do, though, and I am paranoid that 1. It'd take a lot of time and 2. Would leave me too woozey to work.

When my exams are over I fully intend to graduate, though

Edit: Well that's obvious... I meant donate... but graduating would be nice.

d-usa wrote:I used to give on a regular basis. Then the Blood Institute decided that you cannot donate blood if you lived in Europe during certain periods of the 90's.

Something about the British not being able to keep their cows from going crazy...

Actually it's all the way back to the 80s. I lived in Britain from 81-82ish. I was born in 1980, so I was 1-2 at the time. I still can't give blood. :( Before the mad-cow scare I gave blood on a regular basis, every 56 days. (The minimum time where I was.) I've considered going to be a plasma donor (apparently CJ/mad cow doesn't infect blood plasma), and have also thought about becoming a bone marrow donor. That last one scares the crap out of me since it's a huge needle and supposed to be fairly unpleasant...

If the 'living in Britain during the mad cow scare' thing is a problem in the US when donating how come it isn't here?

purplefood wrote:If the 'living in Britain during the mad cow scare' thing is a problem in the US when donating how come it isn't here?

Because nobody would be able to donate

d-usa wrote:

purplefood wrote:If the 'living in Britain during the mad cow scare' thing is a problem in the US when donating how come it isn't here?

Because nobody would be able to donate

That makes sense but surely if it was a problem no one would be able to donate anyway and if it wasn't a problem it wouldn't matter...

purplefood wrote:If the 'living in Britain during the mad cow scare' thing is a problem in the US when donating how come it isn't here?

No idea? Different groups handle the donations I suppose? I just know that because you can't test for Creutzfeldt Jakob disease, it's possible I'm a carrier and am thus no longer allowed to donate blood. Red cross has it listed on their site.

All the crazy gak the army pumped into me has rendered me unsuitable for a few more years, if I recall properly.

purplefood wrote:

d-usa wrote:

purplefood wrote:If the 'living in Britain during the mad cow scare' thing is a problem in the US when donating how come it isn't here?

Because nobody would be able to donate

That makes sense but surely if it was a problem no one would be able to donate anyway and if it wasn't a problem it wouldn't matter...

I think the more serious answer would be this:

1) Eating beef infected with mad-cow could infect you with variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD)
2) vCJD can be spread by blood transfusion, but we are unable to test to see if it is present in donor blood.
3) There has not been a wide-spread outbreak of mad-cow in the US, so the majority of the population would not currently be infected with vCJD
3.1) Including people into the donor-pool that are at higher risk of being infected with a disease that we cannot test for and therefore introduce it into a low-risk population would not make much sense.
4) In the UK there was the big outbreak in the 90's. You still cannot test for it in donor blood, but it would be assumed that everybody living in the UK would have the same risk of already carrying vCJD.
4.1) If the donor pool is at the same risk level for vCJD as the recipient pool, then there would be no need to include them.

Bromsy wrote:All the crazy gak the army pumped into me has rendered me unsuitable for a few more years, if I recall properly.

Are... Are you a super soldier?

d-usa wrote:

purplefood wrote:

d-usa wrote:

purplefood wrote:If the 'living in Britain during the mad cow scare' thing is a problem in the US when donating how come it isn't here?

Because nobody would be able to donate

That makes sense but surely if it was a problem no one would be able to donate anyway and if it wasn't a problem it wouldn't matter...

I think the more serious answer would be this:

1) Eating beef infected with mad-cow could infect you with variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD)
2) vCJD can be spread by blood transfusion, but we are unable to test to see if it is present in donor blood.
3) There has not been a wide-spread outbreak of mad-cow in the US, so the majority of the population would not currently be infected with vCJD
3.1) Including people into the donor-pool that are at higher risk of being infected with a disease that we cannot test for and therefore introduce it into a low-risk population would not make much sense.
4) In the UK there was the big outbreak in the 90's. You still cannot test for it in donor blood, but it would be assumed that everybody living in the UK would have the same risk of already carrying vCJD.
4.1) If the donor pool is at the same risk level for vCJD as the recipient pool, then there would be no need to include them.

Okay that makes perfect sense to me now...

I go as often as possible, am also an organ donor. And I'm on the bone marrow register.
The only thing I don't like about giving blood is when they tape the tube to your arm. Find the warmth of the blood uncomfortable and kind of weird. Quite happy to watch the needle go in though.

When the blood was being drawn, I couldn't feel it being drawn. No warmth or anything.

Azza007 wrote:When the blood was being drawn, I couldn't feel it being drawn. No warmth or anything.

My arm gets numb as all hell when my blood is being drawn...

Norn King wrote:

Bromsy wrote:All the crazy gak the army pumped into me has rendered me unsuitable for a few more years, if I recall properly.

Are... Are you a super soldier?

I'm a super ex-soldier who is theoretically immune to anthrax and smallpox.

Its something I want to do, but I really don't like needles at all... Although the last couple of flu jabs I had weren't too bad, so i'm going to have to go give it a try soon. Going to take some strong self persuasion on my part.

Everytime there is a campus blood drive I always forget about it. :(

Bromsy wrote:

Norn King wrote:

Bromsy wrote:All the crazy gak the army pumped into me has rendered me unsuitable for a few more years, if I recall properly.

Are... Are you a super soldier?

I'm a super ex-soldier who is theoretically immune to anthrax and smallpox.

You sound like you're not willing to test out that theory

biccat wrote:I try to give blood regularly, every 6 weeks when the office has a blood drive.
Having to read pamphlets and fill out a questionaire every time you donate is a waste of time.

I'm surprised that you can donate so quickly, in the UK the minimum period between donations is 120 days as that is the normal life span for red blood cells. The pamphlets are quite pointless if you have been before but the questionnaire really isn't as there are so many factors that can effect the quality of blood. That depends on what is actually on the American questionnaire of course.

I donate blood when I can, its pretty easy to do as you can book appointments with a mobile blood bank via the national blood service website or you can just turn up (expect a long wait though).

Vaccinations shouldn't have any bearing on your donor status provided that it wasn't a live vaccine and that it wasn't administered in the last 6 weeks, in the UK at least.

Palindrome wrote:I'm surprised that you can donate so quickly, in the UK the minimum period between donations is 120 days as that is the normal life span for red blood cells.

I checked, it's every 8 weeks. The office has the blood drives, I just show up when it is on my calendar.

So you give a unit of blood every 8 weeks? Aren't you anaemic?

I donate plasma every two weeks - got another donation booked for the day after tomorrow, in fact. Since I'm AB+ (>2% of the population are AB+), they absolutely LOVE my plasma. I'm big enough that they can take the maximum amount from me, which is about 900mL. That's almost a third of my body's plasma, if I remember right. I end up almost a kilogram lighter after every donation, it's awesome. Too bad I just end up putting it right back on, hehehe.

I've donated 83 times so far, should hit my 100th by the end of the year if I don't miss any. Pretty much all the staff at the donation centre know me at least by sight, if not by name, I'm there so often. And fortunately for me, donating has absolutely no effect on me whatsoever. I've never felt faint or dizzy or anything, no matter what I do - the only effects I've had was once when I donated the day before getting on an airplane. Plane was taking off and I got this massive pain in my right ear - the same one where I burst a blood vessel right next to the eardrum after falling off a horse in primary school. XD No other effects though, it eased off pretty quickly once the plane levelled out and nothing else happened, so eh.

I feel for the poor nurses who have to stick the needle in me though - since I can only donate from the left arm 'cause my right arm's veins are a little too narrow for comfort, the scar tissue's getting pretty thick. They'll have to start taking a run-up soon. Sometimes I don't even feel the needle go in. Other times I really, really do. XD

Had some fun donation experiences too! This one happened several years ago when I was still donating whole blood at the travelling vans - nothing quite like lying there while the nurse is putting the needle in and suddenly hearing "Whoops, lost it." Fortunately it was just the vein, not the needle, and she got it in properly the second time so I was able to donate still. I've also had the plasma machines die on me a couple of times - once just before it started the red blood cell return, so I couldn't donate again for like a month. Made me sadface.

As for why I donate... I get free food! Om nom nom mini meat pies and milo and biscuits and cheese and the occasional muffin or sammich! I don't have to read any pamphlets, and having to do the questionnaire is just an understandable fact of donating - I've done it so often I can pretty much do it in my sleep now, only takes me like thirty seconds.

I'm also an organ donor, according to my driver's license. XD

I've tried a few times, but every time I do the whole "get seriously ill and pass out" song and dance. It's not that blood or pain bother me (since there's not much of either involved), but the sensation of the needle in my arm just sends me over the edge into unconsciousness.

Palindrome wrote:So you give a unit of blood every 8 weeks? Aren't you anaemic?

Nope.

I don't know the (specific) reason for the 56-day restriction, but I've never had any problems, nor have any of the other people I know who donate regularly.

I hate needles. I also refuse to Organ Donations. I'm not going to Valhalla without my organs.

rockerbikie wrote: I'm not going to Valhalla.

Fix'd.