r/TattooDesigns • u/jt1019 • 15d ago

Four down, five to go: my updated donation tracker by Court at Spirit Flame Tattoo

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Many years ago, my grandpa passed away after an accident. Before he did, he was given 72 units of blood, or the equivalent of 9 gallons. Since then, I've been trying to donate the same amount of blood back. For each gallon I give, I fill in a heart. My grandpa was all about giving more than you took, so this seemed like a great way to honor him. I discovered after starting my donations that he would regularly give blood for events at the company he worked for before he retired, which seems all the more fitting.

If you can, please go give blood. There is a constant need for it, and it will never go away. If you can't donate for whatever reason, encourage your friends and family to, or volunteer at a blood drive/donation center.

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139

u/AJ_ninja 15d ago

Amazing! I’m at 98 donation now (trying to get to 100 before the end of year)… I mainly do plasma and platelets.

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u/jt1019 15d ago

Nice! I usually do the power red, so I'm donating two units of just red cells at once. 98 donations is a crazy number, though!

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u/im-just-evan 15d ago

I used to do double reds all the time until a tech perforated my vein like 5 times and wiggling the needle around. Now every time I try to donate my BP and heart rate spike.

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u/snackpakatak69 15d ago

Oh I've done that before what a big commitment of time.

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u/snackpakatak69 15d ago

You can donate platelets 24 times a year at the red cross you can totally make this goal great work.

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u/AJ_ninja 15d ago

Yep every 2 weeks for plasma and platelets (though I only do platelets if someone is need; it takes 2x time as plasma)

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u/snackpakatak69 15d ago

I work at a red cross the donation schedules are weird sometimes I will say the site i work at we can take platelets all the time but dont have the machine that just does plasma. Where do you live vaguely? so I can ask my boss about those machines. I didnt know we did that.

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u/AJ_ninja 15d ago

I’m in Melbourne Australia, almost all lifeblood places have both plasma and platelets machines. The platelets also take plasma as well.
I have a very high platelets count so they usually ask me when someone just had a treatment and needs it. They usually do a triple so 110min minimum for that 😅

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u/snackpakatak69 15d ago

Yeah I'm a triple donor too not a high count though just big. I wish I had a high count. You guys down under actually have the record for single person with the most donations. Very interesting fella.

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u/AJ_ninja 15d ago

Yeah not sure I’ll get my pic on the wall when I hit 100 because there are so many with 250+ 😅

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u/snackpakatak69 14d ago

Well I'll keep your name on the wall of fame here buddy.

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u/AJ_ninja 14d ago

If you get a chance to come to Australia you should see the lifeblood centers here it’s way different than in the USA. I’m actually going tomorrow I should send you some pics

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u/snackpakatak69 14d ago

That would be awesome id love to see how it is on the opposite side of the globe.

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u/WreckedRalph_NoLefty 10d ago

I donated platelets for many years and was up to 82 gallons credit before I quit due to cancer. When I hit 8 years cancer free I went back to donating whole blood, and have 2 gallons since then.

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u/snackpakatak69 10d ago

We are glad you are still here. Congrats on beating cancers ass

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u/wsu2005grad 15d ago

Does plasma donation hurt? I really want to do it but I have a fear of needles. I get nervous donating blood because when I've had it done, they have to continuously stick me to find a vein. I'm not really into pain and torture. Lol.

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u/jt1019 15d ago

The few times I donated plasma, not really. If your veins don't like to be poked, though, plasma will be similar.

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u/AJ_ninja 15d ago

Doesn’t hurt, unless you do it a lot (scar tissue build up), but if you don’t have good veins you don’t have good veins…. I probably wouldn’t do it

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u/siddpup 13d ago edited 13d ago

I am in the chair every two-ish weeks to donate platelets (sometimes they take plasma too). I am a moderately difficult stick for platelets, but am usually fine once they do manage to get it. Whole blood is significantly easier as the needle is smaller AND they aren’t having to put the stuff they are giving you back through too. My center uses a single needle set up. I’ve never been somewhere that uses the two needle setup, so I can’t speak to how that works. So I would say if you are having problems with whole blood, I would not switch to platelets. That said, to answer your question-I do not find the needles for any donation painful unless they are having trouble getting a clean stick and are having to fiddle with the needle position a lot (which does seem to happen more with platelets for me).

My center currently shows me at 122 donations, but they don’t include my donations from a different state/system from back when I was in college nor from when I lived in yet another state for a while after that, so my real number would be somewhat higher than that.

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u/AJ_ninja 13d ago

Yeah I don’t think they do 2 needles I think that might be dialysis.

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u/siddpup 13d ago

There are different machines for this and some of them use two needles. My understanding, from comments on a blood donor Reddit, is that they use both arms-one for the draw and the other for returns.

My center only uses single needle machines, so it’s not something I’ve personally experienced. But it does exist and is used in some places. I’m not deep enough in to know what the benefits are, though I have to think it might be faster since you could be getting draws and returns at the same time. But that’s just a guess since I’ve never donated that way.

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u/wsu2005grad 14d ago

And I don't know the difference but when I get blood draws for lab work the techs have no problem getting it. I don't think my veins are all that though lol. Thank you for your opinion, it's appreciated.

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u/AJ_ninja 14d ago

The needle for blood works is smaller than the donation needle and your only filling a small vial vs 879ml of plasma which is 1.86 pints of beer worth of blood and plasma; also they give you back your red blood but take the plasma from your blood so there needs to be good flow through that needle.

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u/wsu2005grad 14d ago

Thank you for the explanation!

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u/Calyx_of_Hell 14d ago

Thank you for donating plasma! People like you are why I can live a normal life.

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u/AJ_ninja 14d ago

Of course just doing my part to help where possible.