Blood donation

[mrandmrspoves]

Just throwing it in for consideration of the regular blood donors........would you consider donating a kidney? There is a great scheme in which an altruistic donor (non directed donor to use the correct term) can unlock a chain of transplants.
The non directed kidney is given to a matching person who has been offered a kidney from a friend or relative, but the offered kidney is not a suitable tissue match for them. That offered kidney is given to someone who it does match, who has also been offered a non matched kidney and that offered kidney is given to someone who is in very urgent need and does not have an offered match.

 

[Willd]

In and out in under 40 minutes yesterday, which must be a bit of a record, which is good as I had to endure Christmas songs on the radio Did get a mince pie though

 

[BrumJim]

I haven’t given blood in years , first they stopped coming to work where it was easy to pop out from the office, then it was nigh on impossible to find an appointment I could get to that wasn’t already full, then they lost my details, then I tried again starting as new donor in pandemic years, managed to get a local appointment that worked, then they cancelled that, couldn’t find a local appointment not already booked up, no follow up from blood service after they cancelled on me. I guess they’re not short of A Rh+ and don’t need my blood.

I'm A+ too. I think it is the least popular blood for donations. They always give a veneer of gratitude when I donate, and now get details as to where it has gone, but stocks are usually good for this type.

 

[BrumJim]

I’d be happy if the just reinstated the tea.

Got a friend who used to work for the blood service. Certain establishments (Mormon churches, I think) banned any type of non-medical drug, so not only was smoking banned on site, but so was coffee and tea. Workers had to slip off-site for a surreptitious coffee around the corner if they needed one.

 

[BrumJim]

Well, after my TIA, detailed here, I've had a chat with the blood service, and they no longer want me to donate.

38 donations in total, over more than 30 years (missing some due to change in job and trips out of Europe), and that is it. I didn't think it would affect me as much as it did. Sense of humour is maintained (I need to apologise to the person on the end of the phone - I have no real expectation that I should turn up and drink juice and snack on biscuits, just for old time's sake, and I'm certainly not going to have sex with someone with Hepatitis or HIV, just because it won't stop me giving blood), but it really feels like part of my life has now gone. I've always thought of myself as a blood donor, living a healthy and virtuous life and being more than happy to give something that I have, but which other people need, for free. It also gave me a regular checkup on which countries I have visited through work since my last donation. That is all gone.

What do I do now? Has anyone else fallen out of favour with the blood service, and if so, how have they dealt with it?

 

[Toshiba Boy]

My father in law (aged 75) has been giving blood since he joined the Army aged 19. He has now completed 169 full blood donations, and is aiming for 175, then, hopefully the big 200, health willing etc.

 

[PeteXXX]

I'm riding over to Moulton village for my A+ donoring tomorrow. That'll be my 66th.

 

[PeteXXX]

I donored my 68th pint recently..
Just got the text saying it's gone to Central Middlesex Hospital. I think the 67th went to Redditch Hospital.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I'm still banned due to sucessive low blood tests

Got a blood test tomorrow to see if things have improved - somehow I doubt it!!

 

[richardfm]

I'm still banned due to sucessive low blood tests

Got a blood test tomorrow to see if things have improved - somehow I doubt it!!

I've had that happen. A few times they have said they can't take my blood on the day but further tests have been ok, but on one occasion I was given a 3 month ban.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I was given a 3 months ban the first time
when it happened again - the next time - it was a 12 months ban

apparently if I fail again then I will be logged as unable to donate

Or so I was told

to be honest I am more worried about why my iron level are so low - but that is up to the doctor

doesn't help that the doctor and the Blood Donation people seem to use different units to tell you what the iron levels are
I will have to get the levels from the doctor and find a way of converting it!

 

[Paulus]

I gave blood for 25 years, at the North London transfusion centre in Edgware. I used to get an appointment every 3 months , so getting on for 100 donations.
Eventually I was told that although my Veins were quite deep they were starting to collapse when they tried to insert the needle, so I was advised to stop.
My brother was on the plasmaphresis group where his blood was spun and the red cells returned to his arm. He did this for 20+ years.

 

[richardfm]

I was given a 3 months ban the first time
when it happened again - the next time - it was a 12 months ban

apparently if I fail again then I will be logged as unable to donate

Or so I was told

to be honest I am more worried about why my iron level are so low - but that is up to the doctor

doesn't help that the doctor and the Blood Donation people seem to use different units to tell you what the iron levels are
I will have to get the levels from the doctor and find a way of converting it!

When I was banned the Welsh Blood Service told me that although my iron levels were too low to donate they were not low enough to be a health problem, so I didn't need to see my GP

 

[lazybloke]

I was banned after 5 donations.

I have low bp which drops further after donating blood. They hadn't liked the resulting dizzy spells after previous donations, but the final straw was my hour long hypotensive episode; I spent most of that hour feeling like I was about to die;a really horrible experience.

 

[slowfen]

I’ve had to have a break from donation as was found to be anaemia. I had also had a few failed donations in last few years.
The anaemia was found due to being symptomatic, (tired, poor exercise tolerance etc)
GP did full screening for multiple issues, all that was found was that I had iron deficiency anaemia, with seriously low ferritin levels (the body stores iron as ferritin). As everything else was fine, the cause was put down to being a long term frequent donor (3-4/year for over last decade, over 90 total). I’m now on prescription iron to end of year, then GP says I can resume donation.