Giving blood (LFGSS blood drive?!)

This thread acts as an awesome prod to my conscience, appointment booked.

8m41 and they needed to adjust something due to low flow after a couple of minutes. Must do better.

One of the staff has managed 4m46!

5m38. Pleased with that, especially in the morning. Wonder if being a bit warmer makes it go faster?

Forgot to get the time, but props to the practitioner today for the most painless needle stick I've had.

Anyone on here doing plasma donations? The donor centre here is always full of people making what looks like orange juice, and I was wondering about joining up.

If nothing else, it's more mini-cheddars - as many as you can eat in 75 minutes, every two weeks.

I was invited many years ago but every two weeks is too frequent for me, especially with the travel time.

Don't have to do it every fortnight, just that two weeks is the minimum gap ...

Can be quite time consuming though - 75 mins is probably about right for plasma, but for platelets (or platelets+plasma, doesn't seem to make much difference on the timing) I'm not sure it's ever taken me less than two hours in the place

Denied!

TIL that even the slightest threat of upcoming possible surgery* is enough for them to say no. Makes sense as they'd rather I was complete with blood if I'm going to have an anaesthetic/operation, but it's annoying that I wasted some of their time only finding this out when being screened. I'd done the online checks/questionnaire and everything was good.

Blocked for a month but I can ring up and arrange another appointment if my knee is just going to be physio only, find out mid next week...

* Very small chance of knee arthroscopy if my medial meniscus needs tidying up.

#11, failed.

Started strong and then the tape failed and dislodges the needle slightly, which caused the flow to drop.
Abandoned after 4 minutes as wouldn't get enough to satisfy the requirements.
Shame.

Thanks, reminded me that I needed to ring them up to remove the block on my account as I definitely won't be having any surgery. A staff nurse will ring me back to discuss and then I can rebook my next donation...

I do plasma. It takes longer, but you can do it more often (although you don't have to).
You don't get so tired afterwards compared to whole blood. It usually takes me just over an hour. You do have to be careful not to get dehydrated though and drink lots. I wouldn't recommend going out drinking booze afterwards, the hangover is brutal.

#27 done.

Over 10 minutes or so.

Donation #: 15

Time: 6:18

Scran: mint club and a pack of salt and vinegar Seabrook's crisps and a lemon squash

Comment: speedy, excellent biscuit selection this time, not seen clubs before

Failed due to low iron. Well, normal iron, but too low for donation. Back to the steak and spinach for me.

Donation 24 yesterday, first one where I've been able to snaffle a "My Dad Gave Blood" sticker non-ironically.
Didn't even have to plan it in advance, an ad hoc day into the office that I could tag the appointment on to. I remember when you could book appointments online, but not on-the-day, and it's really a good improvement.

#28 done.

Definitely no record. Slow flow rate alarm kept on going off. Took about 15 minutes in the end. Only when removing things did they spot the kink in the tube. Still it was successful!

Did #16 on Monday

Left with my fingers covered in plasters as the nurse kept not pushing the iron test prick in enough, so she couldnt get enough blood out!

Had Lemon squash and a kitkat

Orange Club. They're a family favourite anyway.

For me the finger prick bit is the worst part, don't know why but just the thought compared to a needle in the arm, makes me feel sick.

Same here. Find it slightly better when it’s done on the side rather than tip but still ‘orrible

6:42 yesterday morning, although I feel I could have gone quicker.

A bag of Seabrook's and an orange club to finish up.

Was out within 40 minutes.

#29 booked for mid Feb.

Keep it up everyone...

Went to the blood center in town and the nurse gave me some extra info in my screening interview; it turns out the reason they nag me so much to do blood donation is because I didn't get Cytomegalovirus as a child (which most kids do), so my blood is only used for new born babies to protect them from getting it when they're already very ill.
Each donation is enough for 3 new borns :)

As ever:

• Lemon squash x3
  
• Orange Club
  
• Mini cheddars
  

Not the best today. The nurse spent a long time looking at my arm which I'm always a little suspicious of and then after sticking the needle in she had to call someone else over to adjust the needle which I suspect will result in a lovely bruise (Edit: actually barely bruised at all which is surprising with the amount they were playing with the needle).

Flow was then very slow with constant slow flow beeping but did manage to fill the bag in the end so all good. Probably took twice as long as last time though.

Lemon squash and bourbons, upstairs at the West End Donor centre they bring a few snacks over to you to choose so I was a bit limited.

Good work!

Got a call inviting me to consider plasma donation. Anyone done it?

From what I can tell it's not much different from blood donation (albeit it takes a bit longer) and you can do it more often.

I usually do my blood donation at the NHS donation centre at Tooting hospital and they do plasma there, so no difference there.

#30 done

Least painful needle insertion but then it needed adjusting as it was a bit slow (I'm generally slow anyway, rarely ever get to do a donation without the slow flow rate alarm going off).

First time I've donated exactly on the first day I was eligible after a previous donation. Woo.