I just did for the first time last week, and it wasn't so bad. I thought I would be able to go and give my blood and be out of there within 10-15 minutes, but it didn't work that way. They gave me a binder to read, that must have been a good 6 pages long. Then I had to give a short interview with one of the workers, and take a quiz asking me specific questions about my sexual history, etc. etc. They even took a small sample of blood out of my finger and dropped it into a container of blue liquid to test the iron level. If the blood doesn't drop to the bottom of the glass, your iron level is too low, and you can't donate blood (luckily mine was fine, no problems there).

I have small veins in my arm, in fact, they were concerned that my vein was going to collapse during the procedure (luckily, it didn't). Because I have small veins, the blood flow going from my arm to the bag kept stopping. It took 16 minutes to get a pint out blood out of me! The guy who was taking my blood had to keep slightly turning the needle to keep it going. It sounds painful to have someone turn a needle that's been injected into your arm, but once the needle is in, it doesn't hurt at all.

I'm not even sure what my blood type is, but the Red Cross is going to send me a card in a few weeks with that information on it. It feels good to give blood to help someone else out, even though I felt slightly light-headed afterwords. I was told to double my fluids, and they did have juice, water, crackers and cookies to eat after the blood donation was completed. Guess you could say I did my "good deed for the day."

I tried to several times, but any MAN who has has sex with another MAN anytime since 1977 cannot. Even if it was once, with a condom. They don't care. Bastards.

*edit*

I'm referring to the Red Cross drives, which are pretty much most blood drives.
[Edited 7/15/06 22:27pm]

CuntOMatic said:

You're right, the Red Cross is pretty strict about that. You can't even give blood if you're an American who lived in Europe for 3 or more months. That surprised me, because I guess I always thought there wasn't any difference between a U.S. citizen's blood and a person from Europe's blood.

CuntOMatic said:

see above

I organized a blood drive and the local news came to cover it. They wanted to film me giving blood, but I ended up not being able to because the Red Cross people said I didn't weigh enough. I was secretly relieved because I was scared to do it in the first place!

Yep.. ...and I also signed up as a bone marrow donor at the same time.

psychodelicide said:

I used to. My former missus signed me up. Then on my third donation they refused me because I'd been to a tropical country in the recent months

I've never donated blood but I used to sell my plasma when I was young and broke. Not the best experiences. If you're not familiar with the prcoess, it's really kind of creepy. They hook you up to a machine that takes your blood out, separates the plasma from your blood cells and then puts the cells back into your vein. You go through this process 4 or 5 times and then they put a saline solution into your vein to make up for everything you lost. The saline is room temperature, so it feels really cold going back into your arm and you can feel it traveling around. It's a very WEIRD feeling. My veins are hard to get to and they'd often have to switch arms or try sticking me a couple times to get the needle in and once the poor med student doing it didn't quite get my vein perfectly so when they went to put the first cycles of cells back in my arm it was just going back under my skin instead of into my vein and I was bruised for weeks. It was summer time (so long sleeve shirts were out) and I looked like a junkie.
I've thought about donating blood since then, but you have to wait a year after any tattoos or piercings and it seems about every 2 years or so I get something done so I'm never really able to. I could now, I suppose. It's been long enough.

but not since I'm a 24 hours drunk.

ive done it loads of times.
It always gives a great sense of well being and job satisfaction.
I remember when the blood truck came to our work and me and one of my colleagues(who i didnt particulary like) went out to donate.He had never given blood before and was really nervous he was lying in the couch behind me and i swear on my mothers life this was the conversation i heard;

John: So how much blood do you take?
Nurse: We take just under a pint.
John: (sounding shocked) What..From the one arm?



true story,
i was pissing myself, and to make matters worse he got up too quickly to leave and fainted.

many many times, starting at around 20 yrs old

I do it a few times a year.
It's not painful. It's just a matter of my schedule.

Plus I get alot of free t-shirts when it's company sponsored.

Imago said:

I used to give every 8 weeks but had to stop when I started my allergy shots. I used to give so far back that when I first tried- they turned me down because I did not weigh enough. Those days are long gone.

I sign up for bone marrow each time as well.
I am up for donating whatever I can to help another person out any way I can.

i haven't... and i am so ashamed that maybe i will just walk over there and do it (i live close to the donation place)
i know that there are so many people who can't do it that people like me who have no excuse not to are desperately needed

i'm taking a multivitamin that has iron and my protein supplement has some iron so i should be okay, right??


oh and nan... i don't think 16 minutes is long... i think it can take some people closer to a half an hour although i am sure 16 minutes would seem forever when you are stuck
[Edited 7/16/06 8:26am]

CarrieMpls said:

whats the going rate for plasma?

muirdo said:

Gosh, no idea these days. This was 10 years ago. And the pay was weird. I think I got $60 the first time I went in and then I'd get $30-35 the next few times and if you went a certain amount of times in a month you'd get more the last time. You can only doante 2 times in 7 days and there has to be at least 2 days in between donations.
It's not a lot of money. But I lived off it for a few months when I was 21.

i've donated a few times and i really do enjoy it but i always get sick afterwards. either i come really close to blacking out the next day or i come down with a cold within a week. on the plus-side, i have huge veins and fill the bag pretty quickly. I just squeeze on the tennis ball or whatever squeeze-y thing that they give you real tight and fill it up pretty quickly. Then I go eat cookies and drink cranberry juice.

it is fun to donate blood. i like looking at it fill the bag, it's such a beautiful color.

Used to give every few months @ high school & my first job, but these days there's always a reason they don't want it. At first, our local bank was calling me monthly when they found out I was O+, now they can't take it due to specific medications, cell counts, iron levels, etc. Apparently, I'm a walking disease.

All the time.
*almost* passed out once because I was a little dehydrated.

So none of you are gay men?

i tried but i can't because i was anemic when i was little and i have the sickle-cell trait.