Tips for successful blood donation

[sjoes006]

Here are tips from the Red Cross by via link

http://m.redcrossblood.org/donating-blood/tips-successful-donation.html

Additional personal tips for those that exercise from personal experiences if you work out day of:

- hydration means more for you, drink more water the night before donation and prior to your work out and after. Have some juice before donation and after. 18 ozs isn't enough.

- eat green leafs for a week prior. You'll get sent home if iron levels are low.

- lack of hydration makes veins harder to find and will leave you feeling light headed.

- you may not weigh enough to give a full pint but many banks will take half pints.

[jacquesvol]

I've done it as a student (we'd get some pastry) and when I was in the army (we'd get a day off: I did it often enough to go to Italy with my wife to be.)

[sjoes006]

In the US you don't get paid to donate but the blood goes for a high price being swapped between hospitals.

[jacquesvol]

A simple pastry or a day off in the army isn't real payment.

[cupidkisses]

Thanks for ur tips

[coolbreeze]

That is cool. Great helpful information as always. I donated blood lots of times for the red cross. I try your advice of drinking more water and eating more green vegetables.

[sjoes006]

Sounds like you're good. I'm just a problem donator. Water plumps the veins making them easier to stick. If my iron is to low they turn me away which has to do with my cycle.

I used to give blood to a mobile truck that came to our office and several girls got sick from it. Not waiting for blood sugar levels to rise, weight issues or iron issues. I get sick when they have a hard time finding my veins, I don't like it. I was poked a lot for tests as a child and it hurts when they collapse a vein.

One bad experience makes people not want to give again.

[coolbreeze]

Yeah that is the worst part when they have to find veins or they collapse. True I seen people get turned away for a lot of reasons. One of my friend's got turned away because of a new tattoo. That sucks that mobile truck got everybody sick. I hope the truck was sanitized right. I been lucky I haven't gotten sick donating. But a lot of risks and side effects exist. At least you try to do it even if it always doesn't work out. The thought and the effort always count.

[Astoriana]

1) don’t be chronically anaemic

Damn. Can’t donate blood.

[Likes2drive]

That’s pretty good to know, they also screen your blood and let you know if you have an STD you didn’t know about, I heard you can’t donate if you had a tattoo in the past 6 months either