Thanks for the reminder!

I’m sure the lines won’t be as bad a Black Friday.

Thanks! It’s a quick, easy and safe way to lose a pound.

a fine holiday post elliot, thanx

here are the top ten excuses people give who don’t give blood.

Thanks for this Elliott, Some thing people may not realize is that demand can go up this time of year. My daughter is an RN and the charge nurse at a cath lab. This time her work load goes up significantly as there are many many more heart attacks.

Nobody can ask you to do any heavy lifting as long as you have the bandage on. You can wear it for as long as you like.

LOL

As I say: “In for a pint, in for a pound.”

yea! I give 3x a year at this little church near my squeezes place that always gives soup, sandwhiches and goodies afterwards. When they are “off” I give at work, but its not nearly as nice. So check out different sites if you have several that are available.

But most of, give. Its a great feeling to make a difference.

The last time I tried to give the nurse stabbed my arm a dozen times and only squeezed out like 1/8 pint.

Maybe it would be a good idea that to qualify for Universal Healthcare under the Obama plan that it be a requirement to give blood periodically so shortage of blood would never be a problem. It could be promoted as a patriotic thing to do our part to help out the country.

Universal Healthcare for a Universal Donner. O positive here.

They also give you a neat certificate for every gallon you give

Thank you to all blood donors out there. I have to take an infusion of a blood fraction that requires nearly 400 pints of blood to produce – and I get that every single month. This infusion keeps me out of a wheelchair and keeps my pain levels way down so it is a blessing.

I used to be a blood donor – now I’m a receiver. I have donated 11.5 gallons total. It’s great. You can donate platelets in between – those are really valueable for chemo patients as well!

I have ‘hard’ veins to find – and I never let anyone stick me more than twice. Then I ask for someone else to do it. Usually works well that way.

I give every time it comes around on the calendar and have for years. There’s one thing that doesn’t get mentioned a lot but holds true, especially for men over 45 and for post-menopausal women. Donating blood can reduce your chances of heart attack significantly. One figure I saw said that men over 45 who donate blood reduce their chance of heart attack by 60%, having to do with the elimination of iron from the blood, the reduction in older red blood cells (which we don’t “recycle” as often as we age as we did when we were younger) and the stimulation of the bone marrow to produce more new, and more effective, red blood cells than it otherwise would.

Blood banks cannot advertise this since donating blood is not supposed to be a medical procedure and there are no guarantees anyway (elimination of risk of lawsuit, probably) but I do know I feel better after donating and always have, and not just existentially. I was encouraged to start donating years ago by a nurse at a community health clinic who noticed the high iron content of my blood and suggested it (a side effect of also living over two decades at high altitude – above 8000′).

TW3K, I thought O negative was the universal donor. I’ve also found that blood banks also want people with common blood types because, no surprise, the most injuries and surgeries happen to people with common blood types and I’ve actually been called by my then local blood bank and asked to come in as soon as I was eligible because they were low on my very common A+ blood.

beats me, i have this bog old rolly polly vien. needles are one of the few things that make me woozy.

They decided to ban me permanently from giving blood, since I’m a gay man who has (gasp!) had sex with another man sometime since 1978.

Since, you know… they have to assume we ALL have HIV and never get tested.

I got a nice letter from United Blood Services informing me how my blood is too dirty to be welcomed anymore. However, they made sure to mention that I’m still able to volunteer in other ways.

Oh, and receiving gay blood can make you gay. So I hear.

Sorry to hear that. Unfortunately for me, being in and out of the hospital and the clinic so much I can’t really afford to be (LOL!).

Anyway, thanks for trying!

Thanks, Elliot. I have a couple vacation days coming up soon and I will make the pilgrimage. I am about to read the “excuses” offering you included to face down my own lapse with this worthy cause. Walking the walk, not just talking the talk, eh?

They test the blood for HIV every pint, no matter what. That blood bank sounds like someone there is just bigoted. Try somewhere else. Different blood banks DO have different standards of who they will accept. I have a rare immune disorder. The blood bank in California took my blood because my diagnosis indicated that it was an auto-immune disease – not caused by a virus or bacteria.

When I moved to Florida, they wouldn’t because ‘they weren’t sure’ what caused it.

Also, I had high liver enzymes once (not really high but about 2 points over their artificially very low number). Then they changed the number to be more realistic (indication of hepatitis) and then they called me to come back.

So…if you want to try again, just go somewhere else. There are usually two blood banks in an area – a private one and usually the Red Cross also.

Don’t forget that you can also donate clotting factor cells, through a more lengthy process called “apheresis.” On the downsides, apheresis takes a long time, and can involve sitting for two or three hours with one or both arms immobilized.

On the other hand, you’re treated like royalty, you get to sit in big comfy reclining thrones, people feed you Tums and scratch your nose for you. Or if like me you donate one-armed, you can sit and type on the computer with one hand while you donate with the other.

Yes… they’ve tested for HIV in donated blood for quite awhile now. I’m only 27, but the last time I gave blood was when I was 22 or so.

I had donated blood maybe 5 or 6 times before, and always lied in the screening interview… but when I was 22 is when I finally decided to actually be honest for once and admit that I’m gay and not a virgin.

It turns out, they don’t care if you have been tested every day since you were born for HIV, and it has always been negative. They don’t care that they themselves test the blood they receive for HIV. They don’t care that straight people have HIV also, and can transmit it via straight sex. The question they ask is “Have you had sexual intercourse, even once, with another man since 1978?”

It’s discrimination.

Around here (Phoenix, AZ) it’s pretty much always United Blood Services that does blood donations. I don’t even know where else I would go to donate blood. And even then, I don’t know if their policies are any different. From every other time I’ve heard this topic discussed, it seems that it isn’t any different.

My blood isn’t welcome.

Your blood isn’t welcome if you’ve had sex with a prostitute, sex with someone of the same sex, if you’ve shared needles, if you’ve lived in Europe for a total of three months in the last five years, if you’ve lived in Great Britain, if you’ve received a dura mater graft, if you’ve had babesiosis, Chaga’s disease, or gotten a tattoo in the past year.

There are a lot of reasons why they exclude blood, which is why it is so important for those who CAN to donate.

The discrimination based on sexual behavior is NOT based on morality or Biblical injunctions, or any such nonsense. It’s based on the greater likelihood that your blood donation might be rejected, which is an expensive process for a non-profit to undertake needlessly; or that you might make someone else sick, which is a tragic outcome.

They have to be selective, but that’s not the same as being bigoted. I’m sorry you can’t donate, but you know what? You can still receive donations. And when that happens you’ll be happy that some people, who pass the selection process, are willing to take the time to donate on your behalf.

Re; Receiving gay blood can make you gay.

Can I get maybe just a couple of tablespoons, till I can dress better?

2 more reasons: (1) You might get a free diagnosis of something you otherwise wouldn’t ever know you had, like west nile virus (like I did); (2) a drink or three fewer to get a buzz on afterward.

I do not like giving blood, not at all. I am very pleased with myself, however, for having given.

I would love to give blood, and feel the urge to help whenever I am solicited. But have hepatitis C and am banned (on solid medical grounds). It’s a pity for more than a few reasons, including the fact that I actually enjoy the whole needle thing. (It was love of needles that brought HEP C into my life back in the day… oh well!) Hearty praise and thanks! to all who give blood, especially those sensible enough not to like needles!

I’m a Lymphoma survivor, will they take my blood if I offer it?

As the person who received two units of whole blood last week….. I thank the generous donor for the gift…… as that gift helped me make it through 12 doses of Interlukin……

When I worked as an RN blood donations were always down during the holidays and “summer vacation” periods…… usually when the need can be the highest….. in areas in the country you might hear calls for donations on TeeVee due to critical needs……

For those who cannot give…… encourage someone else, drive them to the blood bank as part of your gift……

Thank you for for being part of fighting the cancer who decided to take up living in my lungs and allowing the Interlukin packman’s to chomp through the nodules……. Just like W….. I expect it to be gone at the first of the year….

Elliott, you are such a good soul to do this post for Ms. Katymine, Marymine, and Dearsweetsusie!

red cross donation eligibility guidelines for hiv risk:

You should not give blood if you have AIDS or have ever had a positive HIV test, or if you have done something that puts you at risk for becoming infected with HIV.

You are at risk for getting infected if you:

have ever used needles to take drugs, steroids, or anything not prescribed by your doctor
are a male who has had sexual contact with another male, even once, since 1977
have ever taken money, drugs or other payment for sex since 1977
have had sexual contact in the past 12 months with anyone described above
received clotting factor concentrates for a bleeding disorder such as hemophilia
were born in, or lived in, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea,Gabon, Niger, or Nigeria, since 1977.
since 1977, received a blood transfusion or medical treatment with a blood product in any of these countries, or
had sex with anyone who, since 1977, was born in or lived in any of these countries. Learn more about HIV Group O, and the specific African countries where it is found.

You should not give blood if you have any of the following conditions that can be signs or symptoms of HIV/AIDS
unexplained weight loss (10 pounds or more in less than 2 months)
night sweats
blue or purple spots in your mouth or skin
white spots or unusual sores in your mouth
lumps in your neck, armpits, or groin, lasting longer than one month
diarrhea that won’t go away
cough that won’t go away and shortness of breath, or
fever higher than 100.5 F lasting more than 10 days.

i can’t donate anymore because i had hodgkin’s disease more than 15 years ago. there are lots of things that can disqualify us from donating.

I’m a Lymphoma survivor, will they take my blood if I offer it?

from the american red cross:

Eligibility depends on the type of cancer and treatment history. If you had leukemia or lymphoma, including Hodgkin’s Disease and other cancers of the blood, you are not eligible to donate. Other types of cancer are acceptable if the cancer has been treated successfully and it has been more than 12 months since treatment was completed and there has been no cancer recurrence in this time. Lower risk in-situ cancers including squamous or basal cell cancers of the skin that have been completely removed do not require a 12 month waiting period.

my bold.

probably not – one thing i’ve done is give blood for research purposes.

If you served over in Europe (England and Germany) like my husband and I did, you are not allowed to give blood either. We are healthy by the way, but it is based on a concern about mad cow disease.

Great post, Elliott. Thank you. I donate blood every other month. These days there are so many people who CAN’T–whether from illnesses, current medications, or risk factors, that it just seems right that those of us who CAN step up. My husband isn’t able to; he likes to say that I’m donating “for the family,” while he does some other type of good deed. Fair enough, I think!

In California they can only “introduce the needle” three times.
Once the needle is in the vein sometimes they may need to “manipulate” it for correct positioning.
I ask those who feel squeamish to, please, rethink and dwell on the positives: one pint can help three people. As pointed out, not everyone is eligible, but I do encourage those who can please DO donate.
(yes I am one who is able and does donate – having just received my 10 gallon pin).