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I donate whole blood - have been on and off for 30 years, in the last 5 years pretty much every time I'm able as I convinced SWMBO to start as well.
Don't do plasma as I'm too far away from a collection centre for regular donation. The Blood bank comes to town for a week every 3 months, so always booked in then.
I gave for quite a few years untill I got kidney disease 20 years ago. It was easy as I worked in the centre of Sydney, and could go before work. That stopped me and also that I'd been in the UK in the early 80's so it's assumed I've got mad cow disease as well.
Don.
A enormous thank you to all of the people who donate blood. The blood products aren't just used in accident & Emergency and for surgery like I always thought, cancer victims are amongst the big users of blood products.
I've not ever mentioned on here, but just under 2 years ago I was diagnosed with acute myeloid Leukaemia. A super aggressive cancer of the marrow/blood. I caught it early but the Dr predicted 2 weeks if it was left - thats how aggressive it was. I kicked off treatment with 2 simultaneous lots of high dose Chemotherapy and it hopefully was to destroy all of my blood and bone marrow and the plan was that the cancer cells would go with it. This also meant that I couldn't produce my own blood as it is produced by the bone marrow. I was on rounds of high dose Chemo, cycling for half a year. In during that 6 months basically I was living off the very kind, generous and absolutely selfless blood donations that you were giving, so please know that your blood donations absolutely make a difference, and they absolutely save lives. Depending on my blood levels, I was having bags of red blood so I could have some haemoglobin to breath with and bags of platelets to stop all of my blood vessels and tissue from rupturing.... generally. White blood cells cant be transfused which is the immune system - I picked up an infection from healthy visitors and subsequently had about $20,000 of antibiotics put through me until I could produce some white blood cells at the end of the chemo cycle. Never the less, I think that there is a large percentage of the population, like myself at the time, who never thought about donating and certainly didn't really know the implication or value of donating blood. When in the hospital receiving red blood and platelets and seeing the other people who also would have died without it, it certainly gives you a massive appreciation of how valuable the selfless act of donating blood is. I would have actually died without it and so would have a lot of other people who I got to know.
Thank you.
I donated for 43 years and only stopped after I had my heart attack a few years ago. Had almost 200 donations clocked up when I finished. Started when I was 20 yrs of age. One of the best things anyone can do to help others. Painless and the red cross blood bank girls are super! They always had scotch finger biscuits in stock especially for me with my cuppa after donating.
i used to but they kept ****ing me around.
after 30 or so donations:
sir, you cant donate!
why not?
your heart rate to dangerously low
whats my heart rate?
55
55? my resting heart rate is 40.
oh sir, i'll have to call an ambulance.
i told them i dont need a bloody ambulance.
now every time i go in to donate, they see the "low HR" on my file and have to waste time calling a dr who explains there is nothing wrong with me.
so now they can sod off.
Used to give regularly, until they closed the collection centre in Warwick. (Apparently to save money, seems they were also underpaying their staff, according to the news yesterday).
Means a trip to Toowoomba or Brisbane , but it's immaterial now, as I'm on blood thinner meds for the rest of my life, as well as the other meds they shovel into us old farts.
I've been a donor and a recipient, though not to the degree that Slunnie has! Hope it all works for you Slunnie, the fact you're still here is always a positive sign! [biggrin]
I was told years ago that I could not donate as I had had malaria. Probably too old now - do they have a cutoff age?
Yes they do JD, it is 71 or if you have currency as a regular then possibly up to 81.
I couldn't anymore due to (1) blood thinning medications and (2) age.
I'm pleased that so many continue to donate, and a DIL in our family has been a beneficiary of both organ and massive blood donations for which we are all very thankful - so well done and thankyou all donors and their families ! :)
I've seen the other side of organ donation as well, and I now also have something of a grasp on the intense time that organ donating families go through upon the death of their donating family member. A situation that does not seem to be well understood and was not, in the case I know about, supported very well by the medical professionals, unfortunately.
Re your comment Tombie (post #6) .... you must be a mobile work of art mate !
My wife died while waiting for a lung transplant, so all our family are supporters of organ donation. Her corneas restored sight to two people.
One of my grandchildren became the youngest ever organ donor at Canberra hospital eight years ago, having lived for only a few days after a premature birth.
I have a bit of ink! Added another piece in Thailand a few weeks ago.
There’s a waiting period post tattoos that they won’t draw blood during - and I seem to keep collecting.
In my younger days I donated a couple of times prior to this.