Comments on: Donating Blood: That Felt Good

By: James Cooney

James Cooney — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:32:50 +0000

Way to advocate for donating blood! I talk about my own experience here

I also prefer giving during work time — a nice excuse to take a break from the computer.

By: Jason Dunn

Jason Dunn — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 19:53:43 +0000

Give it a shot T-Will - when I was younger I was afraid of needles for one year, then the next year I was fine. So a lot can change in five years.

By: T-Will

T-Will — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 19:36:32 +0000

I tried giving blood in college (about 5 years ago) and passed out while they were taking my blood pressure. I have a weird thing where when I can feel my heartbeat pounding I get all light-headed. If they would have just stuck the needle in and started drawing blood I would’ve been fine.

At my current job though we get the Bloodmobile coming by every so often, so I’ve thought about donating one of these days, might as well give it a try and see if I pass out again.

By: chrisgohlke

chrisgohlke — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:02:11 +0000

Kudos for doing the platelet apheresis thing. I don’t know if they do it the same way there as here, but it always gave me the willies. I’m fine with them taking stuff out of me, but I don’t like them pumping the leftovers back into me after the filter out what they want.

Most places here don’t give you payment (they don’t really want donors who are only doing it for money). Usually you will get a restaurant coupon and every gallon you usually get something like a coffee mug as recognition. I’ve got a coworker at 10 gallons and at that point you start getting invited to a special dinner every year.

By: Jason Dunn

Jason Dunn — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:30:00 +0000

Reward cards? What do they give you?

By: David Horn

David Horn — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 20:34:58 +0000

You can only donate every 16 weeks in the UK. However, they take platelets out of me at the same time as a blood bag, so I at least get marked down as a double donation which helps move through the reward cards.

By: Jason Dunn

Jason Dunn — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:43:22 +0000

Wow, that’s awesome Chris! Great work - doing it during work time is indeed a nice thing…

By: chrisgohlke

chrisgohlke — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:42:23 +0000

Good for you Jason. I’ve been doing this since college and go pretty regularly. Of course it is really helpful that the bloodmobile comes to our office every 6 weeks and we get to do it during work time. I have not checked in a while, but I think I’m at around 5 gallons. Kind of neat to think that I’ve donate my entire body’s volume of blood many times over.