Mar 242007
On the top ten of List of Things You Do Not Want to Hear when calling to find out how your wife’s surgery went: “She lost a lot of blood.”
However, thanks to an anonymous donor with my blood type, I’m back home today to blog about how you all should, if you are able to, donate blood. All that earnest do-gooder stuff about how it saves lives? All true.
Addendum: Mnemnosyne reminds us to make sure we have prepared information on being organ donors, which has an even better inconvenience-to-life-saving-potential ratio than blood or marrow donation.
mythago
15 Responses to “Give Blood”
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I’m glad you came through it OK. And this is a good reminder for me to give platelets (which for some reason I seem to do better with than whole blood).
I’m actually helping run a blood drive at my university next week. I have to give, being O-neg.
Oh, and take care, mythago!
Additionally, don’t forget to sign the proper organ donation information for your state and — even more importantly — tell your relatives that you want to donate in a worst-case scenario.
I need to get back to donating, but I’m O Pos. You know how you’re supposed to wait 55 days between donations? The Red Cross would always call me on Day 56 to schedule my next appointment. So I had to take a break for a while.
Thanks for the mention!
Speaking from recent surgical experience, if you suddenly find yourself unable to stop vomiting, it’s probably the painkillers (especially Vicodin). Call your doctor right away and have him/her switch you to something else.
Throwing up for an hour straight at 4 am while on crutches — not fun.
I’m Opos as well but I am being advised to stop as I am hypotensive and I keep getting wobbly after a donation. Just got over the needle fear (mostly due to being hypotensive) and it would appear I was right all along :(
Oh well, everyone I know and who might have a say knows how I feel about donating any leftover bits in the event of my death.
I’m finally old enough to give blood, but I’m not sure what type it is.
And I don’t even know if I can – I was in Europe in the early ’90s – Italy from 89 to 92 and Iceland from 92 to 94.
I wish I had a driver’s license, so I could check off organ donor already.
Is there another way to legally do that? Get a state ID? The college I’m going to has blood drives, I guess I’ll find out in the fall if my blood is okay for more than just medical tests.
What health issues can limit blood donation?
The official site gave me no clear answers.
Kaitlyn, there’s a list at the Red Cross site about limits on donations – though the Red Cross isn’t the only entity that does the blood drives. I’m pretty sure the limit on Europe is for the UK. There may be other health issues that affect you; it’s not a bad thing if you try and can’t.
I would, but the Red Cross has stupid homophobic policies that prevent me from doing so. Last time, they said “come back 12 months after you stop having sex with your husband.” Hopefully, that will be many, many years in the future.
Gah, I wish I could give! I’m O-Neg too, but because I was born in Germany in the early 80′s I can’t give… something about an outbreak of mad cow disease or something is what my older brother said. So only… 2, no 3 of my siblings can give, but I’m the only one with O-neg. And I’m sensitive to needles too, especially when they’re TAKING blood (as opps to injecting vaccines) and I have small hide-away veins (unlike my younger brother who has veins you can see from SPACE). Sigh..
Best wishes for a speedy recovery!
On a personal note, I was deeply saddened a few years back when I got called because I was a bone marrow match for a woman in MN, but then they ended up not allowing me to donate because I have some kind of auto-immune disease (I say “some kind” because exactly what it is remains a mystery, but I’m getting treatment for some of the symptoms like hyper-thyroid).
I’m officially an organ donor too, but I guess I really need to find out if my organs would be any good to anyone, or if should I have a warning put on my driver’s license.
Dibs on Oaktown Girl’s brain.
*shakes zombie fist ineffectually*
[...] mythago on why you should Give Blood. [...]
Catching up here.
Gave blood in February after a 6 month hiatus of frustration over the BP being over x/100. I’m at 48 pts. so far since like 1997. O+, not – unfortunately.