Blood donation

[ImperialPleather]

I’m so fed up of being told to donate blood? It’s happened 3 times in the past week I’ve been shamed for not giving blood.

I have no good reason to not give it other than I don’t want to but given I have bodily autonamy AIBU to think it’s no ones damn business?

It’s amazing some people give so well done to those who do!

7 minutes plus travel time, Runkle, don't be daft. Takes me about two hours door to door despite only being about 10 minutes with a needle in.

I want to get to 50 donations - have done 45, and was almost ready to give again when my medication got tweaked again. I can give again when it's been stable for four or six months (need to check - I was about to hit 4 months.)

There's a list of common medicines on the blood donation website, and whether you can donate, but it's not exhaustive, so if yours isn'the listed or you're still not sure, there's also a number you can call, and they were pretty good when I rang. They couldn't tell me straight away, but rang back quite quickly.

The rules around who can and can't donate are based on research, which is why they change frequently. They screen for more diseases than was possible when I first donated in the early '90s. The rules on when you could donate after travelling to malarial countries seemed to change every donor session at one point (when it was relevant to me.) The contaminated blood scandal also produced a lot of changes. There are still things they can't screen for, and the rules tend to err on the side of caution. It means we've got a pretty safe donation system, but there are still lots of things we just don't know yet. It's why research scientist's have jobs. Research is also why they now encourage people to drink water and do some sort of exercise, be it clenching your number or whatever.
The website is pretty informative about lots of aspects of donation.

If you can't donate yourself, you can help others who are able to, by giving lifts or minding children or something.

Whoever asked about a whitey - it's fainting, though not always completely blacking out. I have only fainted a couple of times in my life, and my vision went sort of very bright and white before the blackness started taking over my whole vision (happens quite quickly, though.) I also felt sort if tingly and sounds went distant, and those looking at me said I went very pale - white. My face is almost never pale. You can also throw a whitey by overdoing certain recreational drugs.

OP you’re lucky you can give it. I used to give blood twice yearly since I was eighteen and then the blood transfusion service started turning me away in my thirties because my iron levels were too low, and later because I take a mild anti-allergy tablet daily (for a slight nickle allergy). Now I don’t even bother going to the clinic anymore because I know it’ll invariably be an apology that they can’t take my blood. Our services (Ireland) must be in a far better state than yours! Even my GP can’t understand why they won’t accept it. I don’t drink/smoke/have never taken drugs, and am pretty healthy. I WANT to donate but can’t. It’s a great thing to be able to do, and I’m quite envious of you, actually!

No ! It’s means I sat down after , had my biscuits and water then felt too faint and had to sit in that chair !

I've donated since I was 18, I originally donated because I wanted to find out what blood group I was. I've donated 32 times in the UK and twice in Germany before they banned British blood.

I donate less often that I used to because they increased the threshold for iron levels, and I failed a couple of times when I tried to donate after a 6 month gap, whereas if I leave it a year between donations I always pass. Also it affects my running really badly and I am a bit selfish and don't like that feeling. I donated two weeks ago and can't wait to feel normal again (it doesn't affect other things like cycling or swimming, just running with me). This last time I had a 18 month gap but try to keep it to a year.

The only time I have felt queasy was when the flow was slow and they started twiddling with the needle to try to get it flowing faster. Yuck. I don't think I went back for a while after that, either, but since they made you drink a lot and do buttock clenching exercises it hasn't happened again.

I find it extremely difficult to get an appointment despite being told I have a blood group which is desperately needed. I get calls or texts virtually every week but then get told that they don't need any more from my group. As I am not O it is not needed but the separate Ro group is in very short supply and needed desperately but the normal appointment people can't seem to handle this.

I understand it’s not nice being asked over and over again but it is important for the life of other people or even yourself one day.

I could never donate blood because I was never the healthy weight they wanted before I fell pregnant at 21. When I had my son, age 22, I haemorrhaged and I’m A-, they ran out of my blood and only had O- on hand luckily my body accepted one bag of each blood. If I hadn’t been given those transfusions I would have either been in icu or dead. Now I feel guilty and horrible that because I’ve had a blood transfusion (and may need one again with this second baby) that I can’t give blood back to save someone else’s life - you have to wait a very long time before you can I’ll be 50 odd unless the rules change.

If you can give blood, please give blood! You never know who might need it one day.

I had a hypoxic seizure last time, if I even faint the next time then I won't be allowed to do it again. I'm not allowed until next year anyway due to giving birth but I'm hoping it will all be OK next time.

I understand you don't want to, but if there's a chance someone will donate after being reminded then I don't feel that whoever is doing the reminding is in the wrong.

Not rtft but I used to think like you, then I needed a transfusion to save my life, many, many bags of blood and platelets I needed so lots of people's donations. I'm grateful to each and every one of them as are my children.

So I've never given blood yet lots of people who have donated saved my life. I feel guilty...

I really do want to go but if no appointments available then not much I can do. I actually managed to get one in a couple of weeks time (close to my fiftieth "pint")

I was a regular donor for 30 years until it was decided I was a mad cow risk because of IVF drugs I took over 20 years ago.

Transfusions have saved my life so I'm very grateful for them, and a bit unhappy that I can't donate any more. I didn't donate as much as I took out as I started doing it so late. Like pp's, I think you have to ask yourself if you'd accept one really. It's particularly true of women with the risks of childbirth I think.
duebaby, what's that about waiting a long time? My understanding is that current rules will not accept yours after transfusions, flat. If there's a time period involved I'd be pleased to hear of it.

I think this was just another goady post as the op hasn't been back to defend their opinion!!

This is what I was talking about and the dumb rule on anyone receiving a transfusion since BSE not being allowed to donate.

At the moment if you've had a transfusion in the window you can't donate EVER. This is in spite of vCJD rates falling to zero some years ago.

If they can't be evidence led on the rules then stop bloody spamming me about it!

At the moment if you've had a transfusion in the window you can't donate EVER. This is in spite of vCJD rates falling to zero some years ago.

But it's not just about CJD, or HIV (which was mostly what the contamination scandal with haemophiliacs has been about.) We know there are currently diseases which we don't have tests for yet. We also know there may well be other diseases we haven’t identified yet. We know that if someone''s blood does contain unidentified pathogens, the chances of transmitting it via transfusion are far higher than just coming into daily contact with someone. It's been decided, on the past history of past problems, that it's too great a risk to take blood from people who have had transfusions. It is partly about CJD, but much more to do with things like the contaminated blood problems. And I would rather they erred on the side of caution.

I have started donating since I have finished having babies. What I find difficult is the position you have to be in, and they can be a bit funny about people not lying back.

Don't understand all the love for the snacks after. I never eat them as they are pretty grim at our donation centre, just mini-packs of crisps and cheap chocolate.

@Lizzie48 are you sure you still can't give after having malaria? I've had malaria three times (also Africa) and had extended restrictions (might have been three years?) but after the time elapsed I was encouraged to give again and have probably been a regular donor for more than ten years since then (just breaks for pregnancy). Maybe is worth calling them?

I’m too small to give blood (weight wise) and I’ve definitely felt judged in the past. The person in question really pushed it and wouldn’t accept the weight restriction as a valid “excuse” (her words) until I literally showed her on google. She’d done so many donations.

There are plenty of ways you can help people in the world. You can’t do all of them.

Thank you for that, Hollywhiskey. I will ask. I'm (pleasantly) surprised, as I thought the point was that the parasites remained in your blood. But it sounds as if there's a time limit, which is encouraging.

@M3lon

vCJD like other prion diseases can have an incubation period of several decades, that's why it's not "around" any more, because we don't know how many people do actually have it but aren't symptomatic yet. The potential damage from vCJD from blood transfusions would have been catastrophic so measures were put in place to minimise it which included sourcing fractionated products overseas, leucoreducing red cell donations and reducing exposure of children to multiple unit donations by giving them apheresis instead of pooled units. Until new research was done to ascertain really how bad vCJD ended up being, this was the safest thing to do. Newest research has now shown that the current guidelines are unsustainable so they are relaxing some of the requirements, particularly on apheresis donations and fractionated products. It may extend later on to those who have received donations in the past too, however the consultation required for these decisions is extremely lengthy and involved to ensure we don't have another incident like the infected blood enquiry where numerous haemophiliacs received blood products from HIV & Hep C positive people. Many of these haemophiliacs died as a result.

There is also the issue with those who have received blood products in the past where they may develop antibodies against the donor blood they received, this also makes any platelets and plasma they could donate worthless as we cannot risk transmitting those antibodies to another person as those antibodies could attack the blood transfusion recipient.

In short , the guidelines exist for a reason - because at the time that was the safest thing to do given the information we had then. Now that information has changed, we review it and decide if it's safe to change our guidelines or not. None of it is based off of some ridiculous notion that we like to restrict blood stock levels for "fun".

I work for a blood cancer charity, transfusions are life saving! Same for victims of RTA's, women who haemorrhage after birth, and on and on and on. I am so lucky to be healthy, and I can remake the pint or so I donate. I happily give 3 times a year, and will keep doing so as long as I can. I do think its selfish not to if you can, sorry if that offends...!

If you can't or don't donate, please consider joining the stem cell register. You could be a genuine life saver, a stem cell transplant can be someone's last chance to beat their blood cancer. dkms.org.uk/en

JellyBaby I can't go on the stem cell register either because of the meds I take. I did look and was very disappointed that I couldn't do that either. I just wanted to give something back.

I’ve donated for 30 years now. I’m Onegative so a universal donor.

My eldest DD was diagnosed with ALL 2 years ago. We lost count of the number of blood, plasma and platelet transplants she had over the course of her treatment. She also needed a stem cell transplant.
To those of you who donate, thank you, people like you are who saved my DDs life

I had a transfusion as I retained my placenta. Having a transfusion, means I cannot give blood back. In fact, I am anaemic and have never been able to give blood. I needed 2.5l of donated blood. My husband and I are the same blood type and I made him donate for me. He'll do it again soon as he enjoyed the biscuits.

If you don't look to donating you should expect blood products at anytime in your life. It's incredibly selfish!

@CitadelsofScience It's great you took a look, not many people know about it! Shame you couldn't donate, my mum was disappointed she couldn't join due to her age.

@GenuineKlatchianPottery The willingness of strangers to donate... so pleased your DD's life was saved and I hope she is doing well.