Blood donors?

Nikolas · Sat 20/01/2007 20:58:17

Yesterday I went to donate blood...again. I'm a regular. I go every 5 months, or whenever I want anyways. I'm also looking into paletel (or however they're called) donations and bone marrow (which is rather heavy so I'm really thinking about it... :-/)

Do you donate blood? If not why? I mean for me, it's free, just 30 minutes or something around that (plus driving and parking), does not hurt and well... I may very well do something good, or save someones life or whatever simmilar.

So yes, a spammy thread about blood donations

Gregjazz · Sat 20/01/2007 21:05:18

Good for you!

Especially about the bone marrow... Michael Brecker passed away (on the 13th of this month) because they couldn't find a donor with compatible bone marrow or whatever it was they needed.

Ubel · Sat 20/01/2007 21:07:35

I don't want to donate blood because I only care about myself. I'm a horrible person like that.

LimpingFish · Sat 20/01/2007 21:11:02

Donating blood in Ireland has had some very bad press over the last couple of years. Mass outbreak of Hepatitis C among hemophiliacs due to contaminated donated blood pretty much destroyed faith in the blood bank scheme, as well as reports of HIV infected blood not being screened at the donation stage.

Plus being an Obsessive Complusive keeps me far away from hospitals, syringes, or anywhere I could be exposed to other peoples blood/germs/sickness

Gord10 · Sat 20/01/2007 21:15:52

Such weak people like me are not allowed to donate blood. They only collect a certain level of blood (that I won't be able to donate). Heck, if they collect less than half unit from every weak people like me, they would have so much blood in the bank that could save the world! (umm, I know "saving the world" is too much, well, you got my point

)

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires · Sat 20/01/2007 21:20:19

Me give blood. Me is also scared s**tless of needles. Go figure.

Nikolas · Sat 20/01/2007 21:25:04

Quote from: Geoffkhan on Sat 20/01/2007 21:05:18
Good for you!

Especially about the bone marrow... Michael Brecker passed away (on the 13th of this month) because they couldn't find a donor with compatible bone marrow or whatever it was they needed.

The thing with Bone Marrow is that it takes REAL dedication. There are 2 methods in the UK, and one of them keeps you 5 days in hospital. It's not really easy to donate THAT much time... I mean compaired to 30 minutes for blood, or 2 hours for paletels... :-/

LF: really? Never heard of it...

Mr Flibble · Sat 20/01/2007 21:29:06

Is that Hep C thing in Ireland in general, or just the republic? I live in Northern Ireland, but I don't want to get Hepatitis.

I haven't donated blood before, but I intend to start. I don't know how old I'd need to be to begin, I should really go find that out.

Now that I think, any time I've had blood taken for medical reasons it did take a while to find a vein. Still, I have O Negative, which I believe could be used for quite a large number of patients. It's definately something I want to do, though.

Isn't bone marrow donation super-painful? Not as painful as dying though... I'll look into that too.

Nikolas · Sat 20/01/2007 21:33:49

Quote from: Mr Flibble on Sat 20/01/2007 21:29:06
Isn't bone marrow donation super-painful? Not as painful as dying though... I'll look into that too.

50% of the times, you need general anesthisia... :S The other half you get some kind of machine, which takes blood out (or something like that) and puts it back in, with local anesthetic, and you're fine to go home. First case you stay in hospital. Haven't done it yet.

The thing about bone marrow donor, is that you're simply called if and when you're needed, you don't go every 5-6 months like blood donors. Chances are that you won't be compatible so you just waste a visit. 1/10 donors are compatible with the patient everytime.

Age: above 17 (at least that's what www.blood.co.uk says. Depends on the country).

esper · Sat 20/01/2007 21:38:27

I think the word you're looking for is "platelets."

I don't give blood. Ever. I tried once, but my friend Seth, who went ahead of me, turned green, threw up everywhere, and passed out for ten minutes. Upon waking, he headbutted a nurse in the face and jumped off the gurney, cowering in a corner and screaming for 5 minutes until they calmed him down and he remembered where he was.

However, from standing in line, I at least got to partake in some free pizza, and even after I got out of line I sat down and finished watching "the Great Escape," which they had playing for the people in line

Gregjazz · Sat 20/01/2007 21:49:32

Quote from: Nikolas on Sat 20/01/2007 21:25:04
The thing with Bone Marrow is that it takes REAL dedication. There are 2 methods in the UK, and one of them keeps you 5 days in hospital. It's not really easy to donate THAT much time... I mean compaired to 30 minutes for blood, or 2 hours for paletels... :-/

I thought that they just took samples or whatever and then put you on a list, that if anyone would happen to need a bone marrow donor and you were compatible, they'd give you a call...

Blackthorne · Sat 20/01/2007 21:59:34

I cannot donate blood because I have End Stage Renal Disease and a kidney transplant. I'm severely anemic, and I require shots of a drug called Epogen. In fact, if my condition gets bad - I get blood transfusions. So, to all of you who give blood - thanks. I've had quite a few in my day, and they helped a lot.

Bt

jetxl · Sat 20/01/2007 22:02:21

I give a lot of blood, but it usually doesn't end up in someone's body.
Does that gig pay any dough?

Meowster · Sat 20/01/2007 22:04:10

The first and only time I went to give blood, I got told I couldn't because I was born around the time of Chernobyl, and in England.

That was in Ireland.

Maybe they thought they were keeping themselves purebred irish that way or something.

I knew an old lady who didn't want to accept blood when she was in hospital because she didn't know if it was the "blood of a black" or not.

I'm glad she didn't accept blood because maybe she'll die.

Disco · Sat 20/01/2007 22:26:00

I've donated on several occasions, maybe twice a year. I don't mind it at all and I've never had any complications. Well, at least not in the post-screening part of the donation. My first two attempts at donating, I was turned away for being too hot. Coincidentally, on both days (separated by one year) my body temperature was just over 100 F :o Almost an entire degree above their cutoff point. Besides that, I have twice felt a bit dizzy and experienced lo-res vision after donating, but only after I was well away from the needle and in the "sugary baked goods" portion. Each time this happened I had to be wheeled (in my opinion unnecessarily) back to a bed and my waiting time was reset.

It feels good knowing you are helping people, and that you will soon have a pint of newer, 2.5x awesome baby blood circulating inside you

. That is primarily what brings me back to the clinic.

Quote from: Yutzster on Sat 20/01/2007 22:04:10
I knew an old lady who didn't want to accept blood when she was in hospital because she didn't know if it was the "blood of a black" or not.

Perhaps she resented the idea of blood donations full stop, since the process was invented by a black person

LimpingFish · Sat 20/01/2007 22:44:37

The Hep C and HIV thing was just in the Republic. Just another feather in the brim of our government's incompetence hat. One of many.

Ghost · Sat 20/01/2007 22:54:22

I'm not allowed to donate blood because I'm diabetic- it often strikes me as a bit strange that we cannot do that. Okay: My blood is, how to put it, defective. I lack a couple of chemical triggers, which also affects my healing abilities (certainly no Wolverine factor here), but heck, there are so many things done, science-wise, with blood: You can clean it, take bits of it, anything. I think some money and effort should be spent on making these methods more commonplace. Plus I'm 0-, which is quite rare and highly compatible, and it would be nice not to be forced to waste that.

I think blood donors are important. I also used to carry an organ donation card, but that too is void (this at least makes sense because some of my organs are already affected by all the results of being diabetic).

Diabetics are, from the donating point of view, totally shrugged at.

enkerro · Sat 20/01/2007 23:11:21

I can't donate blood because I'm underage and that my hemoglobin level is too low.
I have 115 and the minimum here is about 135..

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires · Sat 20/01/2007 23:11:37

If it were that easy to repair blood, then there wouldn't really be the risk of people being infected by faulty transfusions, no? I'm sure there's a good reason why they don't "repair" blood. Maybe it's not possible yet. Maybe it's too expensive. Maybe it's much too much effort to be worth it. After all, hey, they *need* the blood, so it would be in their best interests to get it all.

Ghost · Sat 20/01/2007 23:17:29

Not repair; if that was possible you could heal diabetes instead of just treating it. But the "taking apart" factor shouldn't be undererstimated. Blood is a collection of different elements, and some of them can "become pure" even if the donator is "faulty". It can be done, and is done for research purposes, and all I think is that some effort should be taken to make some use of that.

In another thread here I learned that some high medal scientists discovered the universal colour of the universe, which is turquoise. Can't see how that'll help some kid that's run over by a cart and needs an infusion.

Blood donors?

Ghost

Ghost