Give Blood

gruber · #1 19th January 2011, 12:52 PM

Iam back home from giving blood that will save 3-4 people and it only took 10 mins, Ive been thinking about getting people on the forum to group up and go to their local blood donation facility so more lives can be saved every 3 months. Iam in the Maitland area if anyone wants to come with me next time it would be good

gruber · #2 19th January 2011, 12:54 PM

Also after i gave blood, I noticed a whiteboard on the wall saying they need 475 donars this month but hyave only had 95

robertkd · #3 19th January 2011, 01:03 PM

reminds me I'm due for a cuppa tea and a chat myself.

cheers

Logic · #4 19th January 2011, 01:31 PM

Usually do - but can't for a few months more yet as you can't give within 12 months of having a tattoo done!

Must say my last few experiences left me quite dizzy and nauseous which wasn't so cool.

two dogs · #5 19th January 2011, 02:34 PM

Good on you, Gruber,

May I add that there are other options, apart from donating whole blood every three months. You can also donate plasma and/or platelets every 2-4 weeks.

Prior to being diagnosed with prostate cancer mid 2009, I attended the Wollongong Blood Donor Centre every fortnight, donating plasma and platelets on alternate fortnights. However, both take longer than a whole blood donation, around 40-60 minutes.

Although my prognosis for being cancer free, following radiotherapy a year ago, is excellent, much to my chagrin, I'm not allowed to donate for another four years. Apparently, it's not about transmitting the cancer, but rather for my own health.

simonecuttlefish · #6 19th January 2011, 03:41 PM

Well done to anyone who does give blood, or put themselves on a bone marrow registry, if such a thing still exists. I'm told is fairly quick and easy, and really can make the difference, especially if you are a universal donor or have an uncommon blood type. There has been an ongoing problem getting people to donate blood and the problem has been growing steadily worse till crisis point.

I would strongly suggest if you are gay however, to go NO WHERE NEAR A BLOOD DONATION SERVICE until you get to read the forms first, or read the donation application policy. I have never in my life, in which there has been a great deal of conflict and abuse at times, been treated with more contempt, horror, disgust, and had so much shame driven into me as the time I went to try to put myself on the bone marrow registry. The first step was giving blood, so I filled the form out correctly and honestly, and ticked the YES box that said, 'Have to ever had male to male sex'.

After being separated into a little room, and being told I had made an "error" on the form, which I repeated a few times that it was not an error, the staff member, who then slid the application form around on the table while staring at it as they could not even look at me any more; I mean that literally, just kept repeating, totally incredulously and in a half whisper so no one would hear;

"Why do you want to give blood"?.....

"I don't really but I was told this is how you get on the bone marrow registry, and I've given you that form as well"....

"It is, but, why? Why would someone like you try to give blood? Why"?

Rinse repeat about 4 times, but with an increasing sense of guilt in me over what I was doing to that poor person; the staff member who was starting to tremble and gibber at the bottom lip, while all the time staring at the form while slowly sliding it back and forth across the table. Then, still without looking at me, I was told that the form would be destroyed, I should not worry that anyone would see it, it would be destroyed and she would tell no one, and that it would remain a secret.

I would have thought a simple statement about policy was all that was required, it's certainly all that I would have needed to hear.

So unless things have changed in this regard in the last twenty years, as I hope they might have, I would stay well away if you are gay, unless you want to see someone tremble and refuse to look at you while dishing out an horrific dose of revulsion without even realising it, and the opportunity to watch someone being made literally physically sick by having to be in the same room as you. And I really should have known better, it was in a county town, all be it a regional base hospital.

I'd just seen a show on dying children and about the desperate shortage of bone marrow types on register. It's odd really - I would have thought that the recipient of the bone marrow, or the parents of the leukaemic child would have been the ones to make that sort of call.