If you react to the adhesive dressings used after giving blood

[OneArepa]

Have you found a suitable replacement to take with you?

My skin’s getting worse and worse for sensitivity and reactions as I age, and the adhesive patch I had on yesterday itched like hell til I could take it off and now there’s a square angry rash. I’ve been able to see it ramping up over the last few donations but think I need to find an alternative now to take with me (side note to anyone who may be put off donating by something like this - please don’t be; I’m just a very delicate flower and most people are absolutely fine. Plus the free snacks are excellent).

I get the square angry rash but so far it doesn’t itch

but they will give you an alternative dressing if you ask for one

I just hold the cotton wool to it for a while after.

They always ask if you're allergic to the adhesive dressings with us, and AFAIK, people who say yes get a bandage instead. So you don't have to take your own.

I just ask for some cotton wool and hold on til stops bleeding, which is like a minute, so no big deal to do.

You don’t need a dressing. Just hold the cotton wool on it for a minute or two. There’s delicate and then there’s pathetic.

@EBearhug That would be good. I thought there must be an alternative but thought I’d just take something I already know is ok with me - but it’s definitely the adhesive so a bandage should be fine. I’ve not been asked about the dressings (at least not recently) but by that point I’ve already got the plaster on my finger, which is fine, so maybe that’s why.

I always get cotton wool and surgical tape, still a reaction but not as bad.

I was always just given a bandage instead. They're used to it. No need for you to take anything yourself

Cheers, @sorrynotathome, but ours make a point of putting it on pronto and telling you to keep it on overnight when it’s an evening donation. Not really one to tell them how to do their jobs 🙃

No need to be a dick, is there, OP asked a valid question

I'm getting more sensitive to them, they hurt like a twat getting them off. Maybe ask if you can just have the little sausage thing and some tape

Don't be a dick, plus when I donate they don't allow it, they say they sent allowed. I also get white tape and cotton wool

Gosh I'm really surprised you've never been asked. I've been donating blood for years and they always ask

My skin reacts to the plasters and the adhesive tape, in fact the tape is worse. When I give blood, I tell them at the start, and they use a bandage to keep the needle etc attached. Afterwards I hold cotton wool on my arm until it stops bleeding. I do have to tell them repeatedly though, as they are on automatic pilot and tend to still come at me with the plasters!

Just take it off as soon as you get out of the session. You don't really need it anyway - you won't bleed to death from that tiny hole.

Snap, @FailingFlyFightingtoFlutter 👍

Well aware I’m not going to ‘bleed to death from a tiny hole’ (now who’s being OTT?). But a) sometimes it hasn’t stopped by the time I leave and b) I don’t want to be a dick with the staff, frankly. They’ve got enough on.

@Clymene 35 donations in, so I probably was asked at some point but definitely not recently. I have to go late in the day so suspect they’re on autopilot as a pp suggested.

Exactly.

Yy some people do bleed for longer after giving blood. I definitely do, have had the experience of a 're-bleed' where the blood did start pouring out of the "tiny hole" The staff were slightly alarmed.
It's actually quite a big hole, as holes in veins go.
No need for people to be sneery about those of us who keep the dressing on as advised 🙄

A cohesive bandage is an option. We have these at home, they stick to themselves so no tape or safety pins required. You can get them in all colours.

@MrBenFan hope that was and continues to be a one-off for you.

@SheliaTakeItBack , thanks 👍

I am allergic to the adhesive also and after surgery was given non adhesive dressings and then a bandage was applied - I bought some from the Pharmacy afterwards for our first aid kit - so they should be easy enough to pick up.

@sorrynotathome

I've always been told to wear it for six hours after donating. I don't think it's pathetic to follow the advice of the nurses who know what they are talking about.

My husband gets a ball of cotton wool and a little cotton bandage.
He gave his 55th donation a few weeks ago ❤

I react to the white tape they often use to secure cotton wool after a blood test - not the papery micropour type, that's fine, my GP surgery has a more substantial plasticky sort that I now know to decline!

If they don’t have a little bandage to give you could you take your own? And ask to bandage yourself once they’ve given you the little cotton wool ball?