Poll: Donating blood

[Little Woodsman]

another factor to remember in giving blood is to NOT do it regularly. if you give blood when you loose blood your body works harder to restore the amount you normally have, thus temporary pigheadedness and hence they give you juice and sweet food as that helps increase the blood output. now as many donation veterans will tell you, you wont be getting that at 10th time and so on. because your body adjusts and starts making more blood all the time since you will be loosing a lot of it. now that is fine, until you stop. lets say you get ill or anything that prevents you from donating on regular basis, then suddenly you got a lot of excess blood produced, without letting it down. if this goes untreated it can literally burst veins.

Ummm, NO. Just no.
Your body will *NOT* overproduce blood & "literally burst veins".
I can't even imagine where you got that idea.
BTW--I'm living proof. I had to take a year off of donating following an accidental blood exposure, and I can
assure you that I didn't produce more blood during that year.

 

[Little Woodsman]

Can't donate due to backwards asshats. O-positive bloodtype, which IIRC, is pretty good, with the only two bloodtypes better for transfusion being O and O-negative.

Uh, just to clear up an apparent misconception....
There are two types of "O" blood, O+ and O-. There is no plain "O".
The blood types are:
O-,
O+,
A-,
A+,
B-,
B+,
AB-,
AB+.

O- is the universal donor, people with this blood type can give to anyone, but can only receive blood from other O- people.
AB+ is the universal recipient, they can get blood from anyone, but can only give to others who are AB+.

 

[Little Woodsman]

I'd like to try giving blood, but I'm not terribly sure they'd take mine given that I have Gilbert's Syndrome.

Whoever collects blood in your area should have a "Donor relations" department or some-such. Get in touch with them and they will be happy to answer whether the Syndrome will prevent you from donating or not. Most of the time they can answer such questions themselves within a few minutes, though sometimes they will ask you to talk to an MD, or even consult your own primary care physician.

 

[Little Woodsman]

I just donated today on a whim. First time too.

Woot! Well done! I hope it was a good experience and you have many more in the future!

 

[Xan Krieger]

If they'd pay me I'd be more inclined to, as it stands I've helped set up blood drives (while listening to Raining Blood by Slayer) but I've never actually given blood. I think I just don't like people enough to want to help, people in the past have treated me like crap so I'm hesitant to do anything to help others unless there's something in it for me.

 

[Zyxx]

I try to, but I take a lot of aspirin for migraines so I have relatively few eligible days.
When I give, I almost always give platelets. It takes longer but they seem to really want people to do it.

 

[marcooos]

Hey escapists,

I like to post these at least once a year to try and get people to donate blood roughly around the same time I do.
I'm in the UK so there is no monetary incentive, its just 30-45 minutes of your time, a little bit of pain but you walk away with the knowledge you helped save someone's life.

Any who's not gone before, try it? Please? It takes so little time to make an appointment and generally the staff there will help and reassure you throughout the process.

When I donated it took 4 and a half hours before I even started giving blood, and several paperwork tests, lots of sitting in the waiting room... full of very poor looking people. It was one of the most uncomfortable experiences in my life. Going to the doctor is a faster process, atleast compared to the blood center near me.

Also, for whatever reason, I was unable to even give much blood. About 10 minutes in I started losing all feeling in my arm (the one with the tube inserted into it) and felt very dizzy. I notified the nurse (was told if I experienced anything out of the ordinary to notify someone immediately) (please note: I was not nervous or anxious, I rather desperately needed the donation money so was very willing to undergo the process)

Left the center wondering why on earth I couldn't give blood. While blood is necessary, I urge people to only go through this process if you are REALLY sure you want to do it, otherwise you're going to be very miserable.

If you're lucky maybe you'll get a quick trip.

What country are you in?

Edit: Just read it properly... What the fuck were you expecting donating blood for money? What it'd be sunshine and rainbows with society's bottom rung and college students.

Don't scare monger on my positive thread

 

[marcooos]

Quoted wrong post delete please you darling mods

 

[marcooos]

another factor to remember in giving blood is to NOT do it regularly. if you give blood when you loose blood your body works harder to restore the amount you normally have, thus temporary pigheadedness and hence they give you juice and sweet food as that helps increase the blood output. now as many donation veterans will tell you, you wont be getting that at 10th time and so on. because your body adjusts and starts making more blood all the time since you will be loosing a lot of it. now that is fine, until you stop. lets say you get ill or anything that prevents you from donating on regular basis, then suddenly you got a lot of excess blood produced, without letting it down. if this goes untreated it can literally burst veins.

Ummm, NO. Just no.
Your body will *NOT* overproduce blood & "literally burst veins".
I can't even imagine where you got that idea.
BTW--I'm living proof. I had to take a year off of donating following an accidental blood exposure, and I can
assure you that I didn't produce more blood during that year.

I'm with Woodsman, stop spreading misinformation and trying to scare monger

 

[marcooos]

If they'd pay me I'd be more inclined to, as it stands I've helped set up blood drives (while listening to Raining Blood by Slayer) but I've never actually given blood. I think I just don't like people enough to want to help, people in the past have treated me like crap so I'm hesitant to do anything to help others unless there's something in it for me.

So I hope you refuse a blood tranfusion if you ever need it. Do you really think being completely selfish makes people inclined to treat you better?

 

[DragonLordSerge]

i donate blood with one of my friends every 3 to four months in illinois is heartland blood centers i have done it since high school so it just feels like a regular thing to do

 

[Xan Krieger]

If they'd pay me I'd be more inclined to, as it stands I've helped set up blood drives (while listening to Raining Blood by Slayer) but I've never actually given blood. I think I just don't like people enough to want to help, people in the past have treated me like crap so I'm hesitant to do anything to help others unless there's something in it for me.

So I hope you refuse a blood tranfusion if you ever need it. Do you really think being completely selfish makes people inclined to treat you better?

Me and the rest of humanity don't like each other anyway, long story. As for me needing a transfusion, so I don't look like a hypocrite I'll refuse it.

 

[Gunner 51]

I'd like to try giving blood, but I'm not terribly sure they'd take mine given that I have Gilbert's Syndrome.

Whoever collects blood in your area should have a "Donor relations" department or some-such. Get in touch with them and they will be happy to answer whether the Syndrome will prevent you from donating or not. Most of the time they can answer such questions themselves within a few minutes, though sometimes they will ask you to talk to an MD, or even consult your own primary care physician.

Not a bad idea, I'll see what I can dig up.
Thanks very much.

 

[Quaxar]

Quoted wrong post delete please you darling mods

Not sure why you deleted your response to me but I'll answer anyway.

Nope I will not remove it, I could fuck a different girl unprotected everyday for years and as long as I didn't know I had an STD I could still give blood, whereas a gay person who has been faithful to one partner for an extended amount of time can't it's based off outdated stereotypes. Also I'm not going to cool people who are afraid of needles pussies as a crippling phobia is not sonething staff want to deal with especially someone who immediately passes out
Apparently you don't read your own thread because male homosexuality sadly is still a big risk group for HIV <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.820022-Poll-Donating-blood?page=5#19794745>as I said on the last page.
Yes you could do a different woman every day but the risk of HIV infection in receptive vaginal sex is 23 times lower than for anal one and insertive 15 times lower. And gays aren't by far the only factors, you can be permanently excluded if you even once injected illegal drugs, having been or having paid for sexual acts, showing symptoms or having had sex with any person that showed possible symptoms of AIDS (like high fever, night sweats or big weight loss) and having been born, lived in, received blood transfusions in or had sex with someone from Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Niger, or Nigeria since 1977. And a >3 months stay in the UK between 1980 and '96, even if you're a Vegan.

There's a whole bunch of risk groups that get singled out even if it might seem ridiculous, you're just taking one you don't like and calling it homophobia.
Could long-term homosexual couples be allowed to donate? Probably I guess but that's not my call and so far it's looking like there seems to be a definitive increase in promiscuity in the homosexual male population compared to heterosexuals, which is fine in itself but not what you want for a group that already has a higher chance of HIV. Did you know that in 2009 in the US young gay males (13-29) made up 27% of the newly infected?

Yeah, you don't call people with fear of needle pussies. So don't call people who try to keep the chance of accidentally getting infected with an incurable disease a bit lower "backwards arseholes" either. It's not only unprofessional but also completely missing the issue.

 

[Sacman]

I tried once. I've had too many transfusions so they don't trust me, they'd likely just dispose of it if they did take some.

But for those that do donate, thanks, I'd be dead otherwise.

Bah... now I feel bad for not donating blood...>.<

And to be honest I'll probably never do it... completely out of laziness...<.<

 

[mitchell271]

Now that I'm actually old enough to do it, I plan on donating blood. I get to help out, nothing *really* bad happens to my system and I get free cookies!

 

[Woodsey]

I've tried in the past solely to find out my blood type (it isn't listed on my birth certificate and I have to pay to find out from the NHS which I refuse to do - think I should contact the NSA? They might know) but I was turned away because I apparently have non-compatible veins, even though I have done a 4-day clinical study where I gave blood several dozen times.

Clearly your veins just think they're pros now and the blood donation people don't appreciate the arrogance.

 

[Killclaw Kilrathi]

I can't due to my "high risk sexual activity", namely being bi. In Australia it's not a permanent ban though, you can give blood after going without such activity for at least one year. But I suppose it makes sense if there's a legitimate risk, and I'm certainly not going to lie on my application in case I somehow actually did manage to give someone something.

 

[thejackyl]

Right now I can't for a while due to recently getting a tattoo. I've heard from several places that I can't donate for 6 months to a year afterwards.

Also, I'm sort of afraid of needles. (Read the first line, and do a double take, I'm a walking contradiction sometimes).

Finally, I've had a LOT of blood drawn from me throughout my life. When I was younger I was on growth hormone, and I would have blood tests several times a year and they drew a LOT of blood from me. From what I remember they drew about enough out of 3-12 year old me to match what an adult can donate. I never liked that feeling I had the rest of the day.