Donating blood

I donate blood as often as possible. Unfortunately, my blood type is AB+, which can only be accepted by other people with AB+ blood, who can take A+ or B+ blood anyway, as I understand it. But I guess they're using it, because they haven't turned me away yet :)

Some of those questions are a little creepy, though.

"Have you had sex with a man who has had sex with a man who has taken money in exchange for sex or drugs since 1977?"

For the last time, Red Cross - no.

If only donating blood was as easy and fun as donating sperm.

I suppose you could burst a vessel in your crank while you're making love to the purple helmeted warrior and they could steal the blood that way.

God, what I don't understand is that they don't take blood from dead people. Especially those to be cremated, although Bob might be able to reveal more about that...unless they do steal blood after death.

hi all, cant donate blood in oz if youve ever visited uk in the last 7 years due to mad cow disease..... that means I cant!!mooooooooooooo

After death, blood is flushed away and replaced with formaldehide to stop the body smelling like Satan's arsehole.

Bob... You have a way with words.

Yep - it has been mentioned before, Dan.

Cant give blood thanks to a blood disorder that I'm a carrier of (called haemochromatosis) :(

So well done to all of you that have given blood!!

Goo wrote:

I gave blood for the first time today, and MAN, what an experience! At first I was really nervous, because you have to wait for quite a while before they actually take your blood. They make you fill out this huge questionaire, and they prick your finger beforehand to make sure you had enough hemoglobin, which hurt a little more than I expected, and made me dread the actual blood removal a lot more. Eventually, they lie you down in a chair, and stick the needle in your arm, and you have to stay there for about 15 minutes, opening and closing your arm as they take your blood.
It was really scarey at the time, especially while I was waiting for the needle, but I must say, I am SO glad I did it! I got such a high afterwards - from the light-headedness a bit, yes - but more from the fact that I actually went through with it. It feels SO good! Not only am I helping people, and hopefully keeping someone alive, but I managed to put aside my fears for something I believed in.
Anyways, I am just feeling so proud of myself right now, I needed to share it with you guys.

Who else here has given blood/had a similar experience?

youre such an inspiration to me. i cant bring myself to go and do it, even thou i have blood taken ever few months for my bloody thyroid!!! i wonder if one day i can be as brave. well done

i think its because blood dies too. its only like cells, and they need oxygen from you to live, so when you stop breathing for a while, thats it.

i wish more people would donate organs when they die. ive told them they can take everything, and the rest if science needs it. Just leave something for my parents to scatter at my funeral!!!

Farlander wrote:

Some of those questions are a little creepy, though.

"Have you had sex with a man who has had sex with a man who has taken money in exchange for sex or drugs since 1977?"

For the last time, Red Cross - no.

Hehe, yeah, some of the questions were a little weird. There were a LOT of them too. And with those questions, you had to go into a little booth with one of the nurses, where they would ask you the questions, and you had to tell them the answer. I thought that was strange, cause you answer all of the normal questions by yourself, and some people would probably feel uncomfortable telling a complete stranger details about their sex lives.

I try to donate regularly at my school blood drives. I remember my first time doing it wasn't so pleasant.

I was sitting there waiting for them to hook the needle to me. I'm sitting there scared because I'm only 16 at the time, and finally it goes in. It felt really odd.

Suddenly, my guy goes, sounding nervous "Ummm, could you hold on???" and then he calls a woman over and they're speaking fast and I start to panic. Turns out, no blood was going through. So while they have the blood pressure thing round my arm, and I'm squeazing the little red handle thing, they're smacking my arm with the needle still in it! Can't begin to tell you how painful that is! I soon found out later that the guy only got the needle under my skin. Bastard.

I think last.... er.... September I signed up to give. Sort of a similiar situation. Only this time it wasn't just under my skin. And I normally don't watch what they're doing because I'm a wuss. Well, no blood rushing through, so I'm staring at the ceiling, and the lady tells me "if you feel a pain, let me know..." sure enough "OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!!!!!" No idea what she did, but it hurt like a motherf*cker.

Last time I gave went very smoothly. My only complaint is the light headedness and fatigue. I'd like to take this time to thank Famous Amos Cookies for helping me out in my times of giving blood ('specially their ginger snaps and oatmeal raisin) :-D

Wow, that sounds scarey! Yeah, the woman couldn't find my vein in my left arm, so she did it on my right instead, which, thank goodness, didn't end up being a problem. That's weird that you gave blood when you were 16 though, over here we're only allowed to give blood when we're 17. Otherwise I would have done it last year.

Damn. I feel guilty now because I have O+ blood, which (I think) means anyone could have it.

Well, I actually don't have to feel guilty yet. I'm probably too young to donate blood.

When you're 16 here, you have to have a permission form signed by a parent or guardian.