To not know my blood type?

[myexisanasshole]

So a thread yesterday reminded me that I should update my iPhone with my emergency contacts and the meds I'm on (quite a lot) and it asked my blood type?! I have no idea, asked my mum and she doesn't know either (thanks mum!) am I the only one? If I'm honest o do t know what my children are either 🙄 please tell me I'm not alone!

Dropitlikeitshot Men can donate blood more often than women, that might be why your DH gets more letters.

Rare blood types aren't always very useful for whole blood transfusions as well, like AB+ can only be given to other AB+ people. AB+ people are universal recipients so can accept any blood type. AB+ donations are more likely to be separated for partial blood products.

O- blood can be given to anyone so is most prized as a whole blood donation. It will never be used for other blood products. And is likely to be issued to be used in emergency situations when blood is needed before the patient's blood type can be cross matched.

@Iruka
Thanks for that, it’s all very fascinating.
I knew that men could donate more frequently, I just thought it was strange that I heard once in a blue moon and he has had lots of letters. They have more recently asked for a donation of platelets from him.

I think platelet donations can be even more often, so if he is a good candidate for that then it would explain the frequent letters.

My blood is good for premature babies as whole blood donation. So they only want me for the scheduled three times a year but then I get absolutely bombarded with reminders to come in

smurfy2015

oops that should have been smurfy2015 No problem

@Iruka

He’s not done it before, and he felt quite off after donating blood last time so he’s a bit reluctant to do it, but we’ll see.

Haha! It takes me a while to get back on form, according to the person who took my blood last time, so I can only go every 4-5 months. Mostly I just get a leaflet through the post reminding me it’s coming up.

I'm O+ and my daughter is A- so looking at that link her dad must be A or AB+

I'm O+ and my daughter is A- so looking at that link her dad must be A or AB+

He must be rh -ve if your daughter is surely and you’re +ve?

I'm A+. So is my mother. My dad is B+. This means that he must be heterozygous for B and carries an O gene. I inherited it from him. I don't know whether my mother carries an O gene.

One of my brothers is AB+. He refers to himself as a blood mooch

Those who do donate blood, do you get an awful lot of letters and requests made if you’re a rarer blood type?
I get one every 6 months or so but DH has had one every couple of weeks.

No I don’t, in fact I’ve had letters telling me I can take a”donation holiday”. I’m B+.

My husband on the other hand is group A (-ve although I don’t think that makes a difference for these purposes?) and gets written to frequently asking him to commit to donating platelets. He looked into it but they were expecting a commitment of once every 5 weeks which he couldn’t keep to as he works variable shifts. I think it’s O and A they need for platelets?

@YouBumder
Not according to that website, it only gives positive for his blood type

My dad was O- so I think I must be carrying the gene for negative

I am A+ with RO sub group

My blood can help sickle cell patients 😊

Ah ok Dina I don’t really know anything about it, I just assumed a -ve child must have a -ve parent, maybe not x

Had no idea until pregnancy. DP doesn’t have a clue what his is. I don’t think many people do unless they have been pregnant, had a transfusion or donated blood.

I knew mine at one point but have long forgotten,I only remember that it is the common type (no surprise there haha). My daughter quite recently asked me what hers was and was horrified that I didn't know,but I told her with 5 kids she's lucky I remember her bloody name!

I didn't know until I was pregnant. My blood type is A+ and so is DH's so presumably DS's will also be the same.

I didn't know until I was pregnant and remembered to ask. I have since forgotten, so well done me!

@agnurse - love your explanation. Can I ask, when they cross match what sort of reaction is seen between incompatable bloods?

@myexisanasshole I wanted to give blood too, but am also on lithium. Sucks don’t it😏

I'm A-, a near universal donor, and the blood service send me notes for "please do the platelets thing" regularly. Unfortunately they need good open pipes to pump in and out for platelets and while I'm fine for whole blood donations my veins are too crap for bidirectional.

My donations almost always go into a bundle of tiny bags for newborns, which is rather lovely. Occasionally I get a text saying where it has been used.

Thanks for this thread, reminded me I've got a booking on Monday that I needed to move back a couple of weeks because I'm full of cold and that's not good for donating!

I'm O+ and DH is A+ and DS1 had ABO incompatibility and was pretty ill for a bit.

When DS2 came along his blood was tested just in case but he is O+ like me. However, he still became jaundiced very quickly and it lasted for several weeks. With DS3 we had the ABO issue again.

DD is also A+ and was jaundiced straight away but it resolved more quickly. The doctors reckon it may have been complicated by the other rarer blood factors. Not the A B C D ones. Can't remember the names.

With DS1, we got used to his yellowness and we even thought it had gone until we looked back on photos taken when he was three months old. We had to take him back to outpatients a few times until he was officially discharged.

I'm A- and my dc's are A- and O-. I only know my dc's blood types as they had to be tested at birth incase they were +ve and I'd need anti-D.

A- is a universal platelet donor so is in demand for donations. Unfortunately my veins are very deep and difficult to get a needle into so i can't donate platelets but I can donate whole blood.

I get a letter every 4 months (the minimum time between donations for women) as my blood group stocks are low in my area.

When they cross match, I believe they'll look to see if there's any clumping of the blood or if the red blood cells get destroyed. One of the most common reactions we see is what's called an acute hemolytic reaction. You can see a spike in temperature and the patient will often complain of back pain, because the damaged red blood cells get stuck in the kidneys. If you have multiple antibodies they may need to do additional testing.

Thanks, agnurse. I always assumed that it was simply a term for getting the right sort of blood (ie ordering enough of the right sort of blood, or O if there was none available from the stores). I didn't realise you'd check it against each type each time. Fascinating!

I didn't know until I was pregnant. My blood type is A+ and so is DH's so presumably DS's will also be the same.

Nope, ds could be O.

This is why before DNA tests blood tests could prove if a man definitely wasn't a father but not if he was.

In the days when I could still give blood I was put on a register for quick donations. I worked at the same hospital as the local blood service and I also lived on site.

I don't know if they still do this, with modern technology blood can be sent to where it's needed but I did feel quite smug about it.