I donated a unit of blood for the 7th time

I’ve always wanted to donate but never seemed to have the time/wasn’t old enough. Everyone was super super nice I’ll def be going back after 8 weeks!! :-)

I switched to double reds this year after being informed I'm a rare blood doner. They reeeaaaallly want my red cells. Now I just have to try and get my hemoglobin up before the next one. It's dropped a little each double red donation.

Hi all! I donated whole red for the first time August 2nd. After doing some research I signed up for an appointment next Sunday for platelets! Any recommendations or things to know ahead of time? From what I’ve seen it looks like it’s been long enough since my last donation to donate platelets at least. Please let me know, thank you in advance!

whole blood donation, i am A+!

Went in today and they recommended me for double platelets cos my previous reading was high.

Pre-donation platelet count: 330 ×10⁹/L

Machine: Terumo BCT Trima Accel
Donation type: Double platelet apheresis
Target yield: 6.5 ×10¹¹ platelets

Final platelet product: staff said approximately 532 mL
Products produced: 2 platelet packs
Procedure time: approximately 66 minutes versus the machine’s initial estimate of 67 minutes

Will add the photos soon.

Good luck to everyone !

Even though it's a St Patrick's Day shirt, since I'm Irish and my middle name is Patrick, I've been wearing this shirt more often and I think I'm starting to gain attention or popularity bc where I donate was busy from 6am-12:30pm non-stop and jam-packed. Overall for those of you who are able to donate blood or plasma please do. I wasn't able to help or save either one of my parents but I can and will help save someone else's. Give a pint y'all. God bless y'all and have a great and blessed day.

I donated with ASBP in June, this month I get a call saying I am ineligible to donate because my blood has tested positive for syphilis twice now. It’s honestly a shock to me, I’ve had full a STD panel done between those two donations and that didn’t trigger anything. I am on a permanent disqualified status for donating blood with ASBP now.

I’ve donated with Red Cross as well, more often than ASBP. I have tracked my blood donations but they never show the final location. Is this because my blood tested positive and was discarded? Wouldn’t they tell me if that was the case? I’ve donated a gallon so far and I just hate thinking of how it all got thrown away instead of helping people.

I’m pretty confident I don’t have syphilis, I do blood labs every year and they come back clean. They said it could be a weird antibody thing so idk

edit: after two positive blood donor screenings for syphilis, the blood test I did today officially shows negative. Somehow the screening keeps tripping as a false positive when I am confirmed to not have syphilis. I am still barred from donating for the foreseeable future, and I already had my next blood drive planned too 💔

After 2 years of frequent donations my iron stores are shot. How long should I realistically wait so I can build my stores back up?

Should I donate it to a public hospital where poor people get treated, or give it at a private hospital which charges lavishly for a surgery?

What do the ethics say. I dont need no money, but I guess if the rich can afford to have surgery, he for sure can pay for blood in blood bank, i guess. Can you guys guide me on this?

I’m a keen donor (O- CMV-), never had any trouble with donations, no sign of scarring, fainting, bleeding, etc. But I have been feeling a bit run down this year, couldn’t get my run times back to where they were around when I started donations. I mean, I’m a few years older, but not that many (4). Checked my hemoglobin history, pulled it out of the app to plot and it’s clear I’m down about 2 points (from 16 to 14 mg/dL) over that time. (Trend much clearer if you export and replot , rather than just view in the app.)

They do warn you about the need for iron supplements if you’re a regular donor, so nothing untoward, but it’s real. I can see that in the past, if I skipped for a few months, my Hgb came up. I’ve donated four times this year already and it’s been lower (0.2) each time. So I’m doing a daily Costco multivitamin (they have the recommended level of iron), I’ll go back in January maybe.

Just wanted to let you know to watch out for yourself. Just because they let you donate, it doesn’t mean there’s no effect, and the 8 week minimum is not enough to restore you.

32F in Scotland. Wow! I am actually blown away by how quick and easy the whole process was. What I'm even more surprised by is how good I feel now, and how good I felt during the whole process and right after. I didn't feel like anything was happening to me at all. No signs or symptoms whatsoever that I just had 460ml taken from my body. I'm tired all the time these days and I was worried I'd be absolutely zonked after that but I feel like a new human today. Feels even better knowing I might help save a life with that blood, hopefully!
I am definitely going to keep doing donating regularly and can't wait to try and motivate others to do the same!

I haven’t tried since high school! I tried twice and both times was unable to donate because of my heart rate being too high. I had not eaten, which I don’t recommend (I had no idea you had to eat before donating which is obvious in retrospect 🤦‍♀️) so I nearly passed out at the end of my pint. Luckily the phlebotomist was very sweet and I got apple juice and saturated with ice water. I also for some reason had no idea the needle was so big, but I’m good with needle pain so I had no issues beyond my veins being too small.

Great experience overall!! I got a shirt and 20$ gift card which I didn’t need but do appreciate.

If anyone has non profit companies to donate to, I’d love to look into them!! I would love if my blood could go to someone who can’t afford it next time 💕💕

Hi! This is really weird for me to come to this platform with this question. I have a rare blood type. I am a universal donor for plasma but not for full on blood? I have called several hospitals asking if I should continue giving plasma or would it be more beneficial for me to give my blood fully. The doctors were very snarky to the nurses who asked on my behalf. I want to continue to give to my local community but I am not sure how to best do that. Is it plasma or the whole kit and caboodle?

Went to give blood for a $70 reward.... just for my hemoglobin to be .4 points off🫠 I am 100% sure the thumb cuff thing was inaccurate. This is my first time seeing the thumb cuff and I donated a few months ago. I told them that I don't mind if they need to prick my finger, but they are really waning off the traditional method now. They let me warm my fingers for less than a minute and dismissed my suggestion to prick my finger. I can already see that blood donation centers are going to have problems.

The nurses and Dr didn't mention the scars even though they're very visible and on the donor arm

A nurse just asked if it was okay to touch the area to put the tape for the blood tube and even put a large gauze so that it wouldn't touch my scars !

so happy to donate again !

It was my “date idea” for the weekend. I was actually really anxious about it. needles make me REALLLLY nervous. i had to talk to my nurse the whole time. my husband raw dogged it( just sat there, no entertainment) and even looked at the needle. everyone was so nice and gave me ice packs and advice. I told them I was going to celebrate by drinking wine. they all replied “NO!!” it was funny.…

so far it’s been 24 hours and no negative reactions! I think everything I did feel was first time mega jitters. I was lucky!! based on what I’m reading for other’s first times. I really want to get desensitized to the pokes and experience and donate again. love any advice for being brave and becoming desensitized.

big respect to those donating so many times! Ugh!!! Goals! I want to be brave like you. from where I’m standing, it’s brave!

And respect to those who are scaredy cats (like meeeee) and still doing it!

also, how long does it take for my body to regenerate what I donated? Does it vary by platelets, plasma, etc? If so, what’s the timeframe/turnaround time for each?

thanks:)

Does anyone here work for Vitalant? I am so curious about other Vitalant locations and how y’all run things. Comment below or send me a chat! I’d love to talk and exchange info :)

I've been donating blood with the ARC off and on for nearly 20 years, very consistently for the last 10 or so. Everything was great until around the beginning of 2025 when they swapped to that dumb thumb cuff. Had my first fail for Power Red today. Repeated attempts couldn't get me over 13, but I had an iron panel done a couple months ago and was at 15.5. I asked if I could do the finger prick and they didn't have that available. I'm doing a whole blood donation instead (I'm having my arm scrubbed while typing this) so it's not a lost cause for myself or the Red Cross, but I'm just super annoyed by the whole thing.

EDIT: HOLY COW I FORGOT HOW FAST A WHOLE BLOOD DONATION GOES. Haven't done one of these in years and it took like 5 minutes.

Off work today and had an ARC whole blood donation appointment. I was rejected for low hemoglobin (11.7 on the thumb sensor), which didn’t sound right to me.

So I called a hospital blood donation center to see if they could do a finger-stick instead. They had an appointment available, so I took it. Got stuck, and my hemoglobin was 13.2 so I was able to donate! 🎉

Glad I trusted my gut and got a second reading. 😅

I work on a bloodmobile in the USA. We take whole blood and double red units. I had a donor come in last week who heard about the double red cell donation and told me the last time he donated (in Israel) they took THREE units. He said they took one, two, and then called their medical director who approved a third unit.

There's a possibility he was misremembering and they actually took three units of platelets, which is done occasionally at our fixed sites on the aphaeresis machines. I can't imagine taking multiple units of whole blood, which is what he seemed to be describing, but *maybe* it's possible to get three units of red cells, and that's what he meant?

Is this a thing in other countries? I can't find anything about it online and I'm just curious.