Lynn and I hit a little milestone today.

[Thumper]

While in beautiful S. E. Asia with the military, I came down with Cholera. I actually thought I was going to die .. and tbh, felt like I WANTED to die at the time. It’s the sickest and most miserable time of my life. Long story, but I pulled through it. (Obviously)

Anyway, I asked the doc if I’d have any long term affects and the only thing I remember him telling me was, I won’t be able to donate blood.

Through the years, Lynn and I discussed donating a few times, but I always reminded her I could not. I finally talked to a technician with the local blood bank and was told that restriction changed ages ago and it is now not a problem.

Anyway, we immediately became regular donors. Yes, we got a late start, but “better late than never”. We now donate 6 times/year … every time we’re eligible. This morning we hit the 6-gallon mark (48 donations combined). It’s a nice “feel-good” thing for us. [emoji106]

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[DeputyDog]

Congratulations. It always makes me feel good when I see that my blood was used.

I’m also a regular donor and am just three units short of the three gallon mark myself.

Apparently I’m one of the about 15% of adults that hasn’t been exposed to the CMV virus so my blood can be used for babies too, so that is another reason why I do it regularly plus I’m O+.


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[Thumper]

Both of us are also O+ Deppity, so we’re pretty much universal as donors. I’ve never even heard of the CMV Virus. I Googled it, but still have no clue what it is really. To my knowledge, our blood bank doesn’t screen for it or I’d have heard of it, or at least seen it on our profile. I’ll have to call and ask about it.

[Bwana]

Good on you folks for doing this!

[BarryBobPosthole]

I used to give regularly when I was in the AF. they usually gavue the afternoon off. And it was a cheap drunk!

The very first time I gave I saw all of that black looking blood in that bag and fainted dead away. Those old Red Cross nurses got a big kick out of that. I got loved on and some extra juiceforit though.

[DeputyDog]

I usually do the double red donation. They take a unit of blood, run it through the centrifuge to separate the red cells out then put the plasma back in you, then repeat the process. I have yet to decide if the bag with the plasma looks more like a light colored beer or piss.


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[BarryBobPosthole]

I believe there is a way to only donate plasma to isn’t there?

BKb

[DeputyDog]

Yes there is. Same process just different return. Same with platelets. The process is called apheresis.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apheresis


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[Thumper]

Yep, we’ve done the plasma before (or platelets? Don’t remember). If I remember correctly, they draw the blood, remove the plasma/platelets, then return the blood. A bit more time consuming and tiring. We normally just do whole blood. It’s also easier for us to stay on schedule as we always know when we’re eligible again without having to look it up. (Every 56 days for whole blood)

[DeputyDog]

Yep, with the double red it’s every 112 days.


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