If You Get Stopped During Giving Plasma for a Sweatshirt Being on the Needle Can You Donate Again

An experienced blood donor shares what to expect, and how to set up.

Gavin just later on a successful donation in the U-M Blood Battle, with Carmine Cantankerous staff fellow member Ethan, who helped with her donation. Photos courtesy of Gavin

Lying down. Eating snacks. Saving lives.

Really, what's non to like about giving claret?

After all, you have something within you that no factory tin can make, and that a lot of people need in order to survive. You can requite it safely, in about an hour, and yous'll barely feel a thing.

Did I mention the snacks? They're free. So are the friendly smiles of the blood drive staff and volunteers (you can actually tell they're smiling through their masks.)

Also free? The feeling that y'all're helping your beau humans, though you'll never know exactly which ones.

I've been altruistic claret for decades, a few times a year, even through the pandemic (and yes, even after all three of my COVID vaccine doses.)

I've even got a pin to testify that I've given v gallons of my blood, which works out to near 40 donations.

Then I've nerveless some of my favorite insider tips almost donating blood.

If y'all've never given claret, or you did it long ago but stopped, this is a slap-up time to start. There'southward really a shortage of blood right now, and blood banks are pulling out all the stops to bring in more donations before people become busy during the vacation season.

Take, for case, the Blood Battle between the University of Michigan and Ohio State University . It's a contest to see which schoolhouse tin bring in the most blood donors in the month before the football game rivals meet on the field.

I'm proud to say I scored a point for U-M this week by giving at a drive on campus. There are plenty of blood donation appointments withal open earlier the contest ends November 24.

Why should you requite blood?

Just a few miles away from the U-G stadium sits the main campus of U-One thousand's Michigan Medicine. The patients who come to our hospitals and clinics need an incredible amount of blood every day.

The Claret Depository financial institution director, pathology professor Robertson Davenport, Grand.D., leads a squad that works closely with the Cherry-red Cross to make sure we take enough blood, platelets and plasma to treat patients for everything from cancer and sickle jail cell disease to eye surgery, liver failure and astringent car crash injuries.

Fifty-fifty some COVID-19 patients get blood products, especially those on the life-support system called ECMO.

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"Michigan Medicine uses well-nigh 32,000 units of ruby blood cells, fifteen,000 units of platelets, and 7,000 units of plasma annually," Davenport told me. "Major clinical services that rely on blood transfusion include heart surgery, including coronary artery bypass surgery and centre valve repair; cancer intendance such as leukemia and bone marrow transplantation; congenital heart surgery for infants and children born with heart defects; transplant surgery to supersede failing livers, lungs and hearts; and emergency services for trauma and astute haemorrhage."

He cited merely a few recent examples of patients who needed a big amount of blood:

• A teen girl born with a heart defect who adult an infection and needed more than centre surgery.

• A heart-aged man who needed a second lung transplant later his offset transplant failed.

• A young man with a history of leukemia who received a bone marrow transplant but suffered acute bleeding.

• A young woman who came to the emergency department with acute intestinal bleeding.

• An older man with acute leukemia and an infection that he couldn't fight off.

• A eye-aged man who received a new liver to supervene upon his failing one.

Some of the tools of the merchandise for blood donation, on the comfortable cot where donors get to lie down.

Tips for a successful blood donation

1. First, figure out if you're eligible to donate claret

Information technology'southward true, the Red Cantankerous and other blood-gathering agencies don't take simply anyone'due south blood. They must make sure it's safe for donors to requite, and safe for the recipients to become.

Still, while about 38% of Americans run across all the criteria to requite blood, only 10% actually do it. That's why shortages happen.

So information technology'southward fourth dimension to cheque the blood donation eligibility guidelines if you're assuming you won't qualify, or if you didn't authorize in the past considering of a tattoo or piercing yous got, a trip you took, or a medicine you were taking. Guidelines have changed!

If you're a fellow member of the LGBTQ+ customs, run into the special page for you (and note that the U.South. Nutrient and Drug Administration is working with the Ruby Cross to evaluate potential changes to its donation guidelines for gay and bisexual men.)

If yous've recently gotten vaccinated against COVID-19, with a start, second or third dose of any of the vaccines approved for use in the U.S. or Canada, yous don't take to await before altruistic blood. The waiting catamenia was removed earlier this twelvemonth. You also don't take to wait after getting a flu shot or nigh other vaccinations (bank check the eligibility criteria to be sure.)

If you lot've recently had COVID-19, you demand to wait until yous're a few weeks after your positive exam or symptoms before altruistic.

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Ane of the eligibility criteria that has tripped me up from time to fourth dimension is the level of hemoglobin in my claret, which relates to levels of iron. In fact, this is pretty common, especially for women, and the Red Cantankerous offers information nigh why it's important and what yous tin can practise .

Each donor gets a rapid hemoglobin test every bit part of the pre-donation process, but you don't want to make the trip to a donation site only to notice out your level is too low.

So, I take an atomic number 26 supplement and a vitamin C supplement to help my body absorb the actress iron, and I endeavour to eat atomic number 26-rich foods in the weeks before a donation. If you recollect you might accept low iron, talk to your health care provider most whether y'all should take a supplement.

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two. Pick your twenty-four hour period and time, and "pregame" a few days before you give blood

The Red Cross has an like shooting fish in a barrel-to-use online scheduling organization that lets you discover a blood donation time and location that'due south user-friendly for you (you may live in an area served past some other blood-gathering organization, merely they probable take 1 too.)

Nigh donations take about an hour from start to finish, but with COVID precautions and staff shortages this can stretch out a flake longer at tiptop times. Then don't book a donation time that starts an 60 minutes before a crucial meeting or when you have to pick someone upwards.

Pro tips for feeling your all-time when giving blood:

• I effort to option donation times after lunch, so I can have a meal about half an hour to an hour before I make it. This gets carbohydrate into my bloodstream so I'll be less likely to feel woozy after I give. But no matter what time y'all give, make certain to have at to the lowest degree a snack before you go.

• The day before your appointment, you'll become an email nudging you to take intendance of the pre-donation questionnaire and become a digital Rapid Pass that will speed your way through the donation process. This just takes a few minutes and includes important information almost eligibility that might be specific to your area (such every bit whether y'all were informed you lot ate at a local eating place associated with a hepatitis A outbreak).

• This tip is crucial: Start drinking extra water a few days before your engagement. Getting fully hydrated will plump up your veins and make your donation get more smoothly.

• By the day of your appointment, you should be and then well-hydrated that your urine is about colorless and you discover yourself needing bathroom breaks more oftentimes than usual. Also, avoid coffee, tea, cola or other caffeine-containing drinks and foods on the day of your engagement, since they make your body get rid of h2o faster.

• Program your outfit: Short sleeves, or sleeves you can unbutton and roll to above your elbow, are a must. You can wear a sweater or jacket before and subsequently you lot donate. Don't wear a skirt or apparel because information technology'south non easy to get on and off the loftier donation cot in one. (I found that out the hard way. Never once more!) Super-tight jeans or waistbands aren't a great idea either.

3. Know what to wait at your donation:

If yous want a bang-up detailed explanation of what happens at a blood donation appointment, the Red Cross offers a full blow-past-blow .

Check out the list below for a quick run-downwardly of what you lot can wait along the fashion.

Blood donation preparation checklist:

• Bring your ID, so they can make sure yous're you lot. If you have a donor card from a by donation, bring it, too.

• Wear a mask. Blood donation drives are health care settings, so it'south probable required, though that could alter depending on local COVID case rates.

• Bring your smartphone or something to read in case you have a bit of a wait.

• If y'all didn't do the Rapid Pass in advance, be fix to go over all the eligibility questions near your health and travel history, and other topics, on the computer of the staff member assigned to yous.

• Even if you did do the Rapid Pass, you will still accept a few more questions to respond. Be honest about everything they inquire – they volition continue the information confidential.

• If yous're with a friend and get deferred from donating because of how you lot answered a question, just y'all don't want to tell the friend the reason, you tin say it was low iron or something.

• If you're concerned you might have low iron, ask them to exam your hemoglobin start before you invest besides much time in the appointment. This involves a pinprick on one of your fingertips to get a driblet of blood. If your level is too depression on the first attempt, they can test it ane more time from a different finger.

• You'll get your temperature, pulse and blood force per unit area taken – so basically, giving claret includes a free health screening!

• Remember to keep your anxiety flat on the floor, your body relaxed and your breathing calm when they accept your blood pressure.

• If y'all're anxious near needles, use distraction to keep yourself from worrying. Enjoy the audio system that's playing upbeat music. Trade stories or crack jokes with the staff (they have a long day on their feet). Do some patterned breathing. And tell the staff that y'all're not a fan of needles so they tin can help you through the procedure.

• They'll ask you which arm you want to give from. Some people prefer to attempt to give from their non-dominant arm, merely honestly there is no pain later and so information technology should not matter. And sometimes the easier-to-access veins are on your dominant arm, so using information technology might make things get more than smoothly to use that one.

What it'south like to donate blood, stride by footstep:

• The staff will put a blood pressure cuff on you and narrate every pace of the process, from using a marker to outline the vein they'll use, to cleaning your pare to prevent infection, to inserting the needle and telling you when to clasp or roll the soft roller or squishy ball they'll put in your hand.

• The needle goes in on the inside of your elbow, and staff are excellent about doing it as quickly and painlessly as possible. Thankfully there really aren't many nerve endings in that spot, so information technology's more than similar a moment of discomfort than pain.

• In one case you've started the actual donation, yous'll be surprised at how quickly it goes – 15 minutes or so depending on the size of the vein and how hydrated y'all are. Y'all need to keep rolling that object in your paw to go along the blood flowing. You tin can read something on your smartphone in your other manus to pass the fourth dimension.

• A key tip: Don't talk or laugh much while you're actually donating; this will deplete the oxygen in your blood and make you more than probable to become woozy when you're done and you sit up.

• They'll cease your donation after they've collected virtually 500 milliliters of claret, which is about 2 1/three cups. Since your body has about 1.5 gallons of claret, this is an absolutely safe amount to take.

• Most of the blood goes into a bag, only before yous're done they will also collect small amounts in a few vials, for testing.

• When you lot're done, they'll have the needle out painlessly, put gauze over the needle site, and have you press on it and drag your arm to accelerate the clotting off of the insertion point. Then they'll put a bandage on it and utilise ruddy gauze wrap to hold it in place. Article of clothing that blood-red wrap with pride for the next hour or so! Continue the bandage in place a while longer.

• If yous're nice virtually seeing your own claret in the collection pocketbook, don't worry – information technology hangs downwardly the side of the cot while you're giving, and once they've clamped it off and laid information technology on the cot, you can easily pivot out of the way one time you sit up and not e'er come across it.

• Listen to the instructions they give you about avoiding alcohol or caffeine that day, too as lifting heavy things or exercising. There'due south a reason for these instructions! Consider this a gratis pass to accept it easy for the rest of the mean solar day – merely be sure to keep drinking water to replace the fluids you've lost.

• Proceed the paper they requite you, which has a unique bar code specific to you lot and a number you can call if yous develop any symptoms. For instance, if a cold or COVID-like symptoms outset the day after you lot donated, you need to tell them right away and so they don't give your blood to someone who might be much more vulnerable to those infections.

• If y'all feel faint or non quite right, tell them. You tin sit on your cot a flake longer, or go to the recovery cot near the snack surface area.

That's information technology!

Now you lot can enjoy those snacks and juices that the dainty volunteer will offer yous in the recovery area. Don't feel greedy if you lot want a second helping.

Sitting at the snack tabular array for 15 minutes, with both your feet on the floor, is of import to making certain y'all're OK before going back to your day. It also gives time for some of the sugar from the snack and juice become into your bloodstream.

And when y'all practice leave, pat yourself on the dorsum. You lot but gave plenty blood to save upwards to three lives.

You can fifty-fifty trace the journey of your donated blood through the Red Cross app , and get an warning almost which hospital information technology concluded upwards at after testing and processing.

And while you're on the app, brand your next donation appointment, for at least two months from now, or longer if your iron levels were on the low side.

And that's how you tin can keep the bike of giving blood – and saving lives – going.

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Source: https://healthblog.uofmhealth.org/lifestyle/what-its-really-like-to-give-blood

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