I have now donated five full gallons of blood products!
Follow-up to my one gallon post here.
And technically, it's 5 gallons and 3 pints after this morning's platelet donation. I'd hit the five gallon milestone with my last one but didn't realize it. Never too late to celebrate though!
One of my co-workers is also a regular donor, and we've bonded over it. One time we were at lunch, eating in the teachers' lounge with a bunch of our colleagues. We were having a group conversation about blood donation, the pain of sticks, the fears of something going wrong, etc. It was kind of a downer conversation about the whole thing. After the group moved on to a different topic, she quietly leaned toward me and whispered "this is going to sound weird, but I actually like doing it."
She couldn't have found a better person to confide in! I feel exactly the same way.
It sounds weird that I like having someone stick needles in my arm and withdrawing my life force. It sounds even weirder when I say that I like donating platelets, in which I can't move my arms for two hours, and also the tape they use rips out my arm hair (this genuinely is worse than the needle sticks, by the way).
I think that's framing it the wrong way though.
I like doing it because it's something I can easily do, it doesn't cost me anything, and I know I'm helping people out. I read a comment online once about donating that stuck with me. It said something to the effect of:
The person who will be getting your donation is undergoing much worse, and they also don't have a choice in the matter.
I think about this in those times where I am a little anxious or nervous that things might hurt.
Yes, the sticks are painful sometimes. Yes, my arm hair getting ripped out is uncomfortable. Yes, sometimes I need to scratch my nose and I simply can't and I want to crawl out of my skin for a few minutes until the feeling subsides.
But that's nothing compared to the person with cancer who's getting my platelets. Or the car-crash victim who gets my blood.
I also think about it in terms of the bystander effect. It's easy to just assume that blood or platelets will be there for people who need it, but that only happens if people deliberately choose to donate.
I want to be one of those people who does it deliberately.
And so far I have: to the tune of FIVE GALLONS!
The last thing I'll say is that part of why I like doing it is because I really like my donation center. The staff there are excellent. I prefer doing it at a place like that than one of the closer, more convenient pop-up options because I feel like if something were to go wrong (god forbid), then a designated site is likely to have the supplies, preparation, and expertise in dealing with the issue.
For example: I have had a few times where the phlebotomist has whiffed one of the sticks for my arm. Each time, they've immediately called over the manager (who you can tell is esteemed by ALL of the staff for being VERY good at getting sticks right -- one time I heard a phlebotomist audibly "ooh" in amazement as she fixed their stick in my arm). She's been able to fix the issue each time.
Thankfully, those issues have been infrequent. Most of the time they do everything great and I barely feel a thing.
They also follow cleanliness and administrative protocols to a well-crossed, perfectly symmetrical T. It's comical, but I'll get asked my name and date of birth probably four different times during a platelet donation, because at each new step of the process they make sure that they've got the right paperwork, vials, and patient. It's always funny to me that they ask me this before they take the needles out of my arms, after I've been stuck in the chair unable to move for two hours. Do they think I somehow snuck out and someone else took my place when they weren't looking?
Of course, they're doing it not for me but to make sure everything gets properly labeled, but I genuinely appreciate the thoroughness. I feel very safe with them because they consistently operate with such a high level of care. If you've been turned off of donating due to bad experiences in the past, I recommend finding a good permanent donation center near you if you're willing to revisit it.
Anyway, that's all I have to say. I wanted to share my personal milestone. Again, as a gay guy who wasn't allowed to donate blood for DECADES, it feels really, REALLY good to be able to finally give back in this way.
I'd love to donate blood, but I'm realistically way too squeamish.
For example, about a year I had to take my wife to emerge. The nurse drew her blood for some tests... Then I woke up on the floor with no idea where I was with like four nurses standing over me.
Two years ago I got covid and flu immunizations at the same time - also woke up on the floor, feeling like I had just died and been revived.
And it doesn't stop there... I can even pass out from reading things that activate my imagination. I'm 100% sure if human civilization didn't exist I would be dead by now, my body has the instincts of some sort of possum.
Side note, during the last sentence I started laughing really hard. I'm part German and part Jewish, I swear this mindset was inevitable. Damn my cowardly rat body!
I've tried to pass out a few times, but mostly have managed to avoid it with the help of the phlebotomists. One time was caused by something they did
don't expand if it'll bother you imagination-wise
One of them set the full bag of blood on the bed next to me, leaning against my leg; my brain didn't like that.
I'm not sure it was technically against protocol, and it was definitely my brain processing the fact that my blood was not in me that caused it but yeah, I can relate.
I also got motivated by your earlier posts and have been donating blood semi regularly since! (Got a tattoo in December so I couldn't for a couple of months but I've done it 3 times now!) Just so you know that your posts definitely have an effect on people.
I will say, last time I donated they had a little machine to check your hemoglobin, no more sticks! Would recommend asking about it if you can, it's made it much less daunting.
AHH, that's so cool! We're blood dono bros!
They used that machine on me today for the first time! It's great news, honestly, because the finger sticks hurt more than the needles in the arms.
I asked about it one time and the phlebotomist gave me an answer that should have been obvious to me: "you've got way more nerve endings on your fingers than in the middle of your arm."
yes! especially because you're using your fingers to do touching/feeling things so it makes the most sense.
What got me is that it hurt more than the finger sticks for my glucometer! They must have used bigger needles
I hadn’t seen your previous post about this, but I’ve also been going for a while now.
Earlier this year I believe I hit the 20 half-liter donations milestone, so about what, 2.5 gallons?
And, according to my spreadsheet (insert nerd emoji), I’ve went on average every 3.2 months ever since the first one. Not bad considering the required minimum is 2 months for me, and occasionally I’m away on the dates they offer. :-)
(I haven’t done the plasma/platelet donation yet, though, but been wanting to look into where I could go to do that near me.)
Also… how does this machine you two have mentioned work, exactly? The finger cut never really bothers me, but I’m struggling to imagine where that new measurement method fits in the overall process. At the sites here, they have to check donation eligibility way before you’re actually allowed into the area with the cots.
It's kind of like a pulse oximeter except instead of clipping to the end of the finger it is a full ring that sits snug on your thumb and reads your iron in your blood through the skin. Looks like this.
You still do it before you go to the cots, along with blood pressure, temperature, etc.
Congratulations on hitting a new donation milestone, that's awesome!! I like your perspective on it - that as annoying as the process can get, the person on the receiving end of your blood donation is going through much worse, so in retrospect you have the easier side of the situation to deal with lol.
I would love to donate blood so I could somehow give back to the medical system that's done so much for me, but because I have Crohn's I'm not allowed to donate anything, even if I were to go off my meds in the future. I'm happy you're finally able to donate, at least - it's good to see the restrictive bans on gay men donating blood being finally lifted.
I remembered your first post about going with your husband in cute matching shirts! Progess!! Way to Stick it to the historic discrimination!
Five Gallons 3 pints (20.32L) is an impressive milestone congratulations and thank you so much for sharing with humanity :) do they give you little badges or pins or heck even milestone stickers?
Thankfully we're all wonderfully diverse like this. I will sign up immediately when they find a way to slice life force off of me in a few seconds without the creepy rubber tubes.
They have little pins that they offer for donation milestones. I put them on my backpack.
They also give out a lot of swag. Most of the time it's a t-shirt that doesn't fit me (I need tall sizes and they only have standard), but today I got flip-flops that don't fit me! (Bonus: the flip flops have what I would call a... uh... questionable design)
We're stuck with low-tech wired options for blood donation right now, but I'm confident that the science of the future will make it wireless! 😂
lol that's where all the wireless donation R&D funding is going, pee flip flops. I know, I know, I need to get over it :P
Good job!
I started donating many years ago when I learned that my friend already got medal for his 10th donation - we have a system for acknowledgement of donors for 10, 20, 40 and I believe 80 and 120 donations (and there is even farther goal for somebody who starts soon enough and is extra healthy through most of their life) herein Czech Republic.
I own this medal for 10 donations now and I'm I believe at 16 or 17 donations thus going for another medal. Too bad that allergy keeps me from donationg full 4 blood packs a year. If I'm lucky, I get 3 a year, more often just two.
I donate full blood, that is 450ml of blood to be used plus some for testing, overall 500ml. This means I donated around 8 liters already (I should have ckecked my "score" before writing this comment).
I'm donating for free (it wouldn't be donation if I got something for it, would it?) straight to the biggest hospital in our region.
I'm not afraid of doctors or needles and I'm just fine right after I donate. I was nervous when I first came there of course, but I had that friend of mine with me who helped me with technicalities (how it works at donation center).
I donate because... Well... I like helping others if I can.
Wow that's a lot for what sounds like a relatively short amount of time, how much would you say that split is down to platelet vs whole blood? For context, donating whole blood only in the UK for what must be at least 15 years now, I'm currently at 48 donation's for roughly 22 litres.
I would actually like to donate platelets as well, but the nearest location to me is about a 5-6 hour round trip, excluding donation time. Vs a 10-15 minute walk to a whole blood donation.
Also I wholeheartedly agree with this.
Platelets are the cheat code for a high score!
Whole blood is 1 pint and has an 8 week cooldown. Platelets are up to 3 pints and have a 1 week cooldown.
I generally try to do platelets at least once a month, so it's effectively a 2:1 ratio of platelets to whole blood, but in terms of units it's really more like 6:1 (I'm a big dude so they can always pull 3 pints out of me for platelets).
Interesting! I just assumed it was based on volume, and bigger person = more liquid. Good to know.
Now I’m imagining a “gold-blooded” bigger person convincing the nurses “let’s go for 5x because I can handle it” and then also going twice a month... would break lifetime volume records in no time!
Always find little differences by country about things like this interesting.
The wait time between whole blood donations in the UK is 12 weeks for men and 16 weeks for women.
The amount is still roughly a US pint though (470ml).
I would like to remind everyone that regular blood donations are the only way to reduce the amount of PFAS in your body. So you’re helping yourself while you save lives.
Oh interesting’ I’d never heard of that, but I guess it makes sense! Are the PFAS isolated and removed from the blood before it makes it to a patient? Or am I donating my problem to someone else as I go?
They'd be receiving blood about as toxic as what's already in them. And I'm sure they prefer having the blood to dying, so it's a win/win.
I am up to 4 gallons, 3 pints, all whole blood as I'm O- (and CMV-) and they basically want me in as often as I can donate.
I also benefit from having a local donation center with people that know me (someone yelled my name and brought me pride pins last weekend). My experiences at traveling drives have been significantly worse. Plus I've gone through periods where I'm there once a week until my iron is good enough to donate. Last weekend is the first time I've been low in quite a while
Why do I donate? For the babies, for the trauma victims, for the apple juice in the cantina. For the fringe benefit of blood sugar regulation. Idk, it just feels like the right thing to do. Though I have demanded my blood back when they were out of apple juice. (They never give it back, the jerks). I don't like getting poked but it's like 15 min of discomfort for literal lives saved, so it feels worthwhile.
4 gallons and 4 pints now!
Awesome!
My husband is CMV- too, so he also donates for the babies.
I am potentially eligible for the power reds next donation. I guess I can do platelets too in between?
I've never done either before. But also my BP was elevated again today so I'm going to have to check with the doctor
My husband does Power Reds. Apparently it’s the “best” option for CMV- people, because it’s safer for a baby to get more blood from a single source.
And you should be able to do platelets, but, fair warning: sometimes they pull a plasma too (I don’t know if it’s done deliberately or simply as a byproduct?). When they do that, it moves your eligibility date for blood donations back.
This, unfortunately, just happened to me with my last donation. I got a call today saying they had to cancel my upcoming Whole Blood donation because it was now outside of my eligibility window.
Hmm I'll check before I commit to it. Ty!
Personally I’ve never seen the point of double red as I would rather donate two normal units. The amount of red blood cells you can donate per year is the same between the two options. But with a normal donation they get plasma and platelets. I also notice a reduction in cardio performance after one unit of red blood lost. Two would be much worse.
I get why they push for it - very few donors max out their annual quota. So while you have them in you might as well push for as many red blood cells as you can. But for a regular they should recommend one unit.
The Red blood cells are a higher priority for my donations because I'm O- I guess? Since I'm also CMV- and thus good for neonates it's even more so as I understand it at least. They'll never turn down my whole blood though.
They'd love me to do platelets separately too but I am busy enough the time commitment is rougher. But since I've never been pregnant I'm also a better platelet donor I guess?
ETA: also double reds have a longer shelf life so that's probably also useful.
My hemoglobin is usually low enough that whole is all I can do, but if I schedule for a double then I can still do a whole.
I'm a little jealous as I really hate donating blood, but I do it every 8 weeks. My employer has an on site draw every 8 weeks, and I figure it's the least I can do since it literally comes to my door stop. I think I dislike it because when I was young I had a blood draw done improperly and it sprayed blood all around. But I also hated getting a lumbar puncture, so I might just hate large gauge needles.
Still, a good thing to do for the community.
I started donating blod again after a hiatus due to traveling abroad and then not remembering to scheduling it in. Sadly last time I was scheduled my iron levels were below the cutoff for being allowed to donate so I've had to postpone it a few months. Anyway, the really nice thing that they've set up here in Sweden is that you get a short text message when they actually use your blood! They didn't do this before, so I was pleasantly surprised when I got the message that they'd used my blood to help someone. That really made my day and I felt super proud for being a donor. I think this one addition to the donation process probably increases multiple donations more than anything.
The Red Cross's blood donation app here tells me the little "journey" my blood goes on - from testing to storage and then generally what hospital it went to and when. It's a nice feedback loop reminding me that the donation goes to someone!
I used to donate regularly but then the center was bought by some other company. After trying and failing to understand how the system works, what is this company (versiti) getting from my blood donation, it started to feel shady or exploitative. Can anyone explain the system to me? This location was close to my home and so a red cross option is/was much less convenient. I'd like to donate more.
Versiti is also a blood donation not for profit, it looks like they do lab testing for individuals or companies as well but they're mostly competing with the Red Cross on service and possibly local capacity.
We have both Red Cross and another agency here as well, I just stick with the RC because I'm comfortable with them mostly and it helps me to be consistent and only need one place to track appointments. It's less convenient than the drives by the other company but I hate donating at drives and it's once every 8 weeks.
I don't personally see an issue with donating to another agency, no major red flags with Versiti for example but you could certainly do some digging!
Weird fun fact about the Red Cross app: the badges count visits, but your Donor Card tracks units of blood. So I've donated over a gallon, due to Power Red donations being considered two units, but it hasn't triggered the badge for that yet. (I switched from donating whole blood to the double red cell ones because they were doing training on the new equipment, and they've continued to schedule me for them, even though A+ isn't on the preferred list of types for it. But shortages, I guess.)
I donate for two reasons:
It's a trivial way to concretely help people not die...and still not enough people do it.
I have my ferritin levels checked annually by my doctor, due to a family history of hemochromatosis (iron buildup), and blood donations keep them under control.
Wow 5 gallons! If my conversion is right, that's enough blood for almost 4 humans. Congratulations! You guys are amazing and I'm sure its made more of a difference than you think.
I can't lie, I feel like having O- blood is a bit of a superpower.
I have no idea how much I've donated. But I absolutely made myself anemic, and AFTER that Canadian Blood Services changed the recommended donation schedule for women?? Like I literally cannot believe that it took until the mid 2010s for them to realize women had less iron and less blood, but whatever. I'll take some iron supplements before and after a donation, and now I know the symptoms of anemia lol.
I donate when there's an event near enough to me! It's honestly the easiest thing for me to give back to humanity. I'm donating in Canada, where you don't get paid or anything, just cookies and chips and juice.
My mom actually can't donate anymore, because she was once tested in a batch that tested positive for HIV? But she then obviously tested negative for HIV.... but still can't donate. Seems wild honestly, that she DEFINITELY DOES NOT have HIV, but they won't let her donate her O- anymore. 😂
Oh and my grandmother was recently diagnosed with hemochromatosis. (Too much iron.) Guess I'll keep up my donations!
We don't get paid for whole blood in the US explicitly but they often have T shirts, totes, gift cards, sweepstakes entries, etc as little incentives. Not sure if you'd count those.
But the apple juice is my main motivator
Team O- superpower!
I’m at a gallon and a half! I’m A- so I can’t do anything other than whole blood or super reds, otherwise I’d be there every weekend. I don’t know if I like it, but I certainly don’t strongly dislike it either, and it’s such a minor inconvenience compared to what might be happening at the other end of the blood bag’s journey.
My donation center asks if you want to schedule your next donation while you’re in the chair, which I think is so smart and convenient. It makes it feel more like a routine hygiene thing than anything else.
Also my donation center always has cranberry cocktail as a juice option and I god damn do I love cranberry cocktail as a treat.