Blood Donors

[Minibit]

have you ever given or received a blood donation?

Today was my third time trying and failing to donate. First two times my iron was too low, and this time I didn't know you couldn't have a piercing less than six months old :(

 

[SlamifiedBuddafied]

Give blood three times a year, once every four months.
It's a good practice as the need for blood is always in demand. Plus having O- blood type, that shits valuable.

 

[Gonzo]

I've only given blood once during a HS blood drive. I love getting my blood taken for bloodwork/etc. (weird, I know), so it was a fun experience.

 

[Lady B]

I've given blood three times a year ever since my 18th birthday, and I'm planning to keep on doing so.

 

[redblood]

I really wish I could donate blood, but I'm absolutely terrified for needles piercing my skin. I already have big troubles when just getting vaccinated, which takes around 10 sec, so sitting there for 10+(?No idea how long it really takes) minutes with a needle in my arm would probably make me cry -_-'

It's something that runs in the family apparently. A relative of my mom's (I think) tried to donate blood, but he became so stiff cause the needle frightened him so much, so they weren't able to get the blood out of him xD Or maybe it was on my dad's side. Oh well.

For now it's just to hope that when I die I'll end up in a coma and becomes brain dead so that lots of people can share my functioning organs and live happily ever after :D

 

[Dervish]

I really WANT to donate blood, but with my lovely health issues, I'm always kind of wondering if it wouldn't be brutal on my system or if the medication I'm taking would contaminate the blood, so to speak.

 

[Razilin]

I donate

 

[Dervish]

I really wish I could donate blood, but I'm absolutely terrified for needles piercing my skin. I already have big troubles when just getting vaccinated, which takes around 10 sec, so sitting there for 10+(?No idea how long it really takes) minutes with a needle in my arm would probably make me cry -_-'

It's something that runs in the family apparently. A relative of my mom's (I think) tried to donate blood, but he became so stiff cause the needle frightened him so much, so they weren't able to get the blood out of him xD Or maybe it was on my dad's side. Oh well.

For now it's just to hope that when I die I'll end up in a coma and becomes brain dead so that lots of people can share my functioning organs and live happily ever after :D

Once, when I was getting an IV in the hospital, two nurses (I think they were nursing students who weren't really experienced, thinking back on it) couldn't find my vein and I got stabbed about 12 times, on both arms and wrists. It sucked when they started wiggling it around in my right wrist to try to get my noodley veins of mobility, because yay skin tearing. I just kind of joked around about it and didn't make much of a fuss, partially because they were cute and protesting isn't very manly to my 19-year-old at the time mind.

I've been stabbed with so many IVs, needles, and injectors that I could pretty much do what all those video game characters do and stab themselves with syringes to get their health back/ recharge their powers without flinching. Hell, the medicine I'm on now involves stabbing myself in the gut and thighs every two weeks with an autoinjector for 10 seconds. The stabbing doesn't hurt, it's the cold medicine forcing its way under my skin that's uncomfortable.

But ultimately, something that might help your fear of needles is just think of your body like a machine that needs maintenance, and that the stuff they're giving you has been given to hundreds of thousands of people before without incident. Kinda like oil for your car.

 

[Hellis]

0 negative here. I give alot. although, as a bisexual, I cannot give as often as others becouse fears sexually transmitted diseases...

 

[Jerelin]

I give blood every 3-4 months (aka every time I can). I'm passionate about it.

B Positive

 

[ᴛᴏᴄᴋᴀ]

I have never been able to give blood. Being an insulin dependent diabetic, they won't take it. =/

 

[Isho13]

0 negative here. I give alot. although, as a bisexual, I cannot give as often as others becouse fears sexually transmitted diseases...

What's with blood donating and sexual orientation? The other day I was browsing photos of a feminist campaign from my country, and a man said he wanted to donate blood but wasn't allowed to -I don't know if it was a clinic or hospital or what- because he was homosexual. What the hell???

 

[Dervish]

I give blood every 3-4 months (aka every time I can). I'm passionate about it.

B Positive

Oh em gee!

Blood type buddies!

What's with blood donating and sexual orientation? The other day I was browsing photos of a feminist campaign from my country, and a man said he wanted to donate blood but wasn't allowed to -I don't know if it was a clinic or hospital or what- because he was homosexual. What the hell???

I may be wrong, but I think it stems back to back in the 70s-80s when the whole AIDS endemic became a thing and the largest group for infection was homosexual males, largely because (I imagine) there was a mentality that there's no need for protection when you can't knock each other up. Given that knowledge about STDs (STIs for you youngin' crowd) isn't quite what it is today, and that AIDS was such a new and growing thing, it just kind of hit the gay community hard and kind of engrained itself in public consciousness as a disease that gay men are at the highest risk of contracting it, and high profile deaths like Freddy Mercury didn't really help.

That said, I might be off or remembering things wrong, so somebody who's more familiar with the subject matter can feel free to add to or correct what I said. It might seem really insensitive, but I can understand having precautions about gay individuals wanting to donate blood because of the whole lack of risk of pregnancy thing, but I don't see how you couldn't clear that up with a test like you have to do for literally every other person.

Who knows? Maybe the old vampires who run the blood drives think you can contract gayness via blood transfusion. I'm pretty sure most of the creaky-old Republicans from the Bible Belt believe that to be as true as six-thousand year old dinosaurs.

 

[LogicfromLogic]

A-, first time in five years I will even be able to try.

 

[redblood]

But ultimately, something that might help your fear of needles is just think of your body like a machine that needs maintenance, and that the stuff they're giving you has been given to hundreds of thousands of people before without incident. Kinda like oil for your car.

Rational thinking doesn't help against phobias and irrational fears. xb That's why they are named irrational. No matter how much you know that something is good for you, it won't make any difference cause your brain will still tell you that it's dangerous and you should keep away. It's not something that changes, not even a little bit, just by thinking "well, it's not really dangerous." or "it's actually good for me." If that was the case then no one would have fears for non poisonous bugs or needles. Still we see people with those fears everywhere.

To ease those fears, the best thing to do is go to a psychologist who can help you find the root to your fear and eventually overcome it. Sadly that costs a lot of money, and is not within my budget.

 

[Kagayours]

I wish I could donate blood, but, I'm not sure I'd be able to. Firstly because I'm so small and light (and I had a friend who said she tried to donate blood but was turned down because she didn't weigh enough, even though the weight requirement would've been, at her height, overweight), and secondly because I take prescription medication, so I'm not sure if they want my blood when it has adderall floating around in it.

Still, I've admittedly never attempted it -- just haven't exactly gone out of my way for it for the reasons above -- but if a convenient opportunity comes up then I might see if my blood is acceptable. I do kind of want to help out.

 

[Dervish]

Rational thinking doesn't help against phobias and irrational fears. xb That's why they are named irrational. No matter how much you know that something is good for you, it won't make any difference cause your brain will still tell you that it's dangerous and you should keep away. It's not something that changes, not even a little bit, just by thinking "well, it's not really dangerous." or "it's actually good for me." If that was the case then no one would have fears for non poisonous bugs or needles. Still we see people with those fears everywhere.

To ease those fears, the best thing to do is go to a psychologist who can help you find the root to your fear and eventually overcome it. Sadly that costs a lot of money, and is not within my budget.

I admit to not being nearly as understanding of phobias because I don't really have any, it's an experience I can't relate to, even though I try to understand how somebody feels when they're reacting to something they have a phobia of.

Well, unless it's something that's rooted in a traumatic experience when they're young, then it's a bit easier.

Take spiders, for instance. I don't know what makes them so pants-fillingly terrifying to some people when they're perfectly fine around other insects.

Hm. I think I'm going to make another thread for this. I'm legitimately curious now.

 

[Jorick]

I've donated blood 3 times. It was never a planned thing, I just happened to see blood drive things happening when I had nothing to do for the next hour, so I figured I might as well sit there reading while giving blood instead of sitting somewhere else and reading while not doing anything productive. I still don't know what my blood type is though, because the Red Cross people never sent me the stuff in the mail that was supposed to tell me that and other things about my blood.

What's with blood donating and sexual orientation? The other day I was browsing photos of a feminist campaign from my country, and a man said he wanted to donate blood but wasn't allowed to -I don't know if it was a clinic or hospital or what- because he was homosexual. What the hell???

It's mainly due to HIV/AIDS. The initial bans were put in place because homosexuals and bisexuals, especially men, were at far higher risk to contract HIV. They were kept in place for so long because they remained a high blood borne disease risk group. Currently a lot of places have changed it from "no gay people ever" to "no donations if you've had gay sex in the past year" because, again, they're a higher risk group and they don't want people to donate blood shortly after acquiring a disease. They do testing on donations to make sure they're clean, but there's a window of time in there where the presence of the disease can be so minimal that it can slip by even the most rigorous of testing.

So it's all about safety and not spreading communicable diseases. Homosexuals just happen to be at higher risk for acquiring those diseases. It's purely a statistics-based precaution at this point in most placed in the world.

 

[Hellis]

"no donations if you've had gay sex in the past year"

8 months for men on sweaty men sex over here now I believe.

Seing how HIV among gay people far less common these days, there has been talks about changing the law.

But it was there for a reason, during the initial outbreaks in sweden, there was alot of contaminated blood in circulation. My uncle lost his wife that way.

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

I've done it three times.

Twice back at my High School and a third time near my college because they called me to inform of a blood donation event taking place just minutes away.
I would have done more cause I put myself on their "Call me whenever something else pops up" list, but they never followed up on it.

I should probably go on their website now and check for myself.

All three times I donated though I got delayed because apparently my body temperature was too high the first time, so I'd always have to wait 15 minutes and test it again to see if it lowered.

I really wish I could donate blood, but I'm absolutely terrified for needles piercing my skin. I already have big troubles when just getting vaccinated, which takes around 10 sec, so sitting there for 10+(?No idea how long it really takes) minutes with a needle in my arm would probably make me cry -_-'

With blood donations you also spend that 10 minutes or so seeing your blood rush out of your arm, down pips and piling up into three seperate blood bags.
So if needles on it's own scares you? Blood Donations probably aren't a good idea, because they take that shit to another level.

I admit to not being nearly as understanding of phobias because I don't really have any, it's an experience I can't relate to, even though I try to understand how somebody feels when they're reacting to something they have a phobia of.

I don't have any phobias, but I have a pet peeve that works on a similliar "Logical reasoning doesn't help" idea that redblood mentioned.

Sharing germs, I can't stand drinking out of the same straw, cup, or eating out of the same bowl, untensils etc. as other people.
It freaks me the hell out, I know it's generally harmless but it makes me go "Gah!".

There are two exceptions where I seem to able to overcome it though.

1) If in a relationship. Note this hasn't happened for over 2 years now, but I've found when in a relationship I don't have issues doing the stuff detailed above strictly with that other person.
I think this is because I recognize that kissing shares far more germs, so the other actions by comparison is mere child's play.

2) Little cousins. When you have a 2 year old cousin trying to share a fork full of cake with you, but with a fork they just used?
God dammit I just can't say no to her and make her feel rejected like that! :(