Are you a Blood Donor?

FZ1inTX

FZ1inTX

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How many of you donate blood? Do you keep track of your quantity?

Before the Red Cross donations, I was giving directly to the military and gave 19 pints of whole blood. I just made my 47th donation to the Red Cross.

That makes 8.25 gallons. I should have donated more over the years but did not for many years after I left the Army. Of the 47 donations to the Red Cross, the last 9 have been double-reds.

Who else keeps track and how much have you donated?

To anyone who does give, thank you! The life you save could be mine or someone I love!
 
I started donating a few years back and I've got a dozen or so donations by now.

Sadly, Canadian Blood Services discriminates towards plenty of eligible donors and we have a severe shortage of blood at the moment. All my European friends, and it's quite a few, are barred from giving blood. This includes my girlfriend. Gay people are also barred along with a host of others.

I try to donate as often as I can but I fear we may continue to have shortages unless policies change
 
We have a lot of the same policies in place here. You cannot donate for many reasons. When I went to the Dominican Republic for vacation in 2012, I couldn't donate for the following year. And I never got a single bug bite! :D But much of what you've covered applies here as well. Outside of an occasional vacation, I'm eligible every time.

A lot of folks I ask all have fears about donating and cite possible contraction of all sorts of diseases. I've assured them that the Red Cross runs very clean donor centers and I've never had a problem but it doesn't matter to them. Oh well.

I've discovered that giving double reads is preferable for me. You walk out with the same amount of fluids you went in with, just anemic for a few weeks but Iron supplements help a great deal. Also, for those giving double reds, take extra calcium before going in. There's a med in the final return of your plasma that will make your mouth taste metallic if you do not have a lot of calcium in you. Four antacid (Tums) works great!
 
Used to donate regularly, but the intrusive questions just turned me off. The last time I donated they wanted Social Security numbers, date of birth, place of birth, all the information anyone would need to steal my identity. When I resisted they said they couldn't accept me....so I don't give anymore. More government intrusion into what should be a private affair.
 
I started donating 10 years ago when my youngest daughter had Leukemia and needed a couple transfusions. I think I'm at about 25 donations now.
PS My daughter is fine!
 
I used to donate regularly... but since I got out of the military, I haven't donated. I'm not sure of the waiting period for donating after being deployed ... I need to look into that.
 
i donated plasma for years, cuz i can do it more often than blood and i get paid for it. however the size 14 needles scarred up my elbows enough that now i cant really donate much cuz its a pain to get the vein anymore
 
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