Well, my four month waiting period is over from last time I donated and they need my special O- blood.  I do a Double red blood cell draw cause they tell me it's better for the person who gets my blood.  

Share some horror stories from when you did it.

[):)]
NSF

Giving blood isn't bad-as long as it's not mine.

Haha.  I also heard from some of my buddies that giving blood is like an oil change for your body and it helps to remove iron and other stuff that just sits in there and builds up.  Plus, all the ladies there at the United Blood Service are hotties.

[):)]
NSF

you mean someone out there will be getting mall ninja blood!

HOLY $HIT! I have the same blood type as the Mall Ninja! Only 17% of the population, and NSF JoJo iz onna them!
Actually, good on ya JoJo. I used to give blood regularly. In the Army we were a walking blood bank, and when a call came out, we lined up and gave.
Now they don't want my blood. I was stationed in Europe, so I am a mad cow disease risk.
My wife told me when she heard I had mad cow disease, I told her no, I was married to a mad cow....
Kinda been in the dog house every since, wonder
why?

I hate needles, might as well just shoot me in the throat and drain me straight from the jugular.


I've been tapped a few times for blood tests and it's all I can do to stay with them while the fill 2-3 viles.    Cold sweats and I start to go faint, I swear I hate the feeling of that needle in my arm and I swear to god I can fill my blood pressure dropping as they fill the viles.



And to think, about a year and a half ago I had a scheme to buy a gun funded by the money brought in by donating plasma.   Went in to let them take a blood sample to test and it wasn't enough that I had to give the blood sample but the damned nurse who was trying to tap the vein of my left arm COMPLETELY MISSED!   She went right through both sides of the vien and was poking me in the muscle of my bicep!   I told her that she missed it and she better try again, from what I've been told you are supposed to withdraw the needle and try to reinsert it but this dame was trying to "dig" around to find the vien.    She saw the look on my face and called over a more experienced nurse, I told the new nurse to try and go for the other arm because I felt my left arm was a bit sore.    Sure enough, she managed to hit the right arm's vein on the first try and no big deal other than the fact that I hate this whole experience in the first place.    The next day my right arm had no visible traces of where a needle had entered the skin and felt no soreness, but my LEFT ARM HAD A HUGE BRUISE AND THE MUSCLE TISSUE WAS SORE FOR MORE THAN A WEEK from where the first nurse had jabbed my muscle.




Then when I was a recruit for the CHP I had to get my blood taken again, this time they needed 3 freaking viles of blood to test.   Drove me batty, almost passed out on that one, I leaned my head back against the wall and when I opened my eyes the nurse had her hand against my forehead and I never even felt it!  Not to mention I was white as a ghost.    My arm that they tapped on that day didn't show any entry marks the next day but it bruised VERY heavily so that I had a big giant yellow and brown bruise for almost 2 weeks.




Yep, HATE the experience and there's no way in hell I'm ever doing a full pint or try to join one of those gallon or 10 gallon clubs.



My friends laugh at me but to them I just tell them to screw off.   I don't mind the sight of blood or gore, I've cut the shit out of myself on a few occasions and had no problems, I also have no problem with vaccinations.   Just hate having a huge assed needle in my arm and feeling the blood drain out.





However my buddies look at it as a great thing.   Go give blood and then go grab a 6 pack to split between them so they both get buzzed off of 3 beers instead of 5-6!

I'm well past the 3-gallon point.  I donated just last week.

Not really a horror story, but a story on what we use to do in college.

Bear in mind we were broke in college as most college students are. So we used to go and give blood, then go out drinking. You buzzed/drunk quickly and not have to buy a lot of drinks therefore saving money and serving your fellow man. Great logic huh? Hey we were kids.

Uglygun,

Don't you love that feeling when the room lights seem to get brighter and brighter. And even if you try looking away, the dull ache at the crook of your arm reminds you of what is going on. And slowly, a ringing noise in your ears starts to drown out all other room sounds.

If you are lucky you will get someone who knows what they are doing.  I would rather bash my nose with a door and collect the blood that way than to have that nurse play joystick with the needle in my arm again.  

Uh.  I gave two units of red blood cells.  got 2 pints of ice cream.  Kinda ok, need a smoke.  ice cream sounds good. discussed socialist programs/politics with hottie nurse.  she was a moderate i belive from her viewpoints.  thought i was crazy cause i thought that calling 686-SMOG to tattle on smoky cars was a gestapo tactic.  gonna go have smoke.

[):)]
NSF

Alright, here's my lame story.  Last time I went to give blood, my fifth trip, wasn't too bad.  Felt a little tense the whole time through, but finished ok.  We have the "trough" of goodies for the givers to eat from, so I meandered over, sat down, and grabbed a bag of cookies to open.  It was quite difficult to open for some reason...and then I felt lightheaded.  Turned around to the orderly, told him I felt dizzy, then awoke to someone waving smelling salts under my nose....
DVDtracker was sitting there and got a good laugh out of it.  Apparently my eyes can go two different ways at once [:)]

Gave blood Thursday. First try needle went through the vein. BIG purple circle on my left arm. Second try in right arm went beautuifly. Plan on going again in three months. Never know when a family member or friend my need it.

Donate every six months when red cross comes to town. I'm at top of list to be called, AB- 3% of population. They slap a special plasma tag on the bag. It gets harder to go each time, two out of last three times they missed the vein and had to use other arm. Missed arm gets big ugly bruise and sore as hell for a week each time.   Usually go across the street after i'm done for a couple of mugs of Killians Irish Red to replace lost fluids.   Ben

I usually try to donate whole blood and platelets when I get a chance at the City of Hope[url]www.cityofhope[/url]),Duarte, Calif.(10 miles east of L.A.) to support their bone morrow transplant and cancer research programs. Laying on a bed for 2 hours in the donation room is no fun, but I have been in there where they treat patients so young that are still on a bottle.  They have a garden on the grounds where I see patients that are mid-teens and late-teens.  Now these people are real troopers. I have worn my NRA hat to the donation, and people would say, “oh you’Re a member of the NRA huh?,” I have also left the NRA’s American Rifleman in the waiting room, and of course the next day the magazines are gone. I hope that me or my loved never needs blood or blood products, but just in case, I hope someone would do the same for me in the future. As for payment, I get some free canned juices and cookies and a t-shirt.

They wont have me for a donor since I am tattooed. Even with all the health codes most tattoo artists adhere to over here.(autoclaves, fresh ink jar for every customer etc etc) and an offer to test me for Hepatitis(vaccinated for A and B) and HIV they still wont.

Got O+ which makes me an universal donor for every bloodtype.

Here in the U.S. we are suffering from the lack of O+ blood, I know a friend that is O+, and they flag him, and the Red Cross regligiously call me friend every 3-4 months for a blood donation.

DVDtracker,

Thanks for correcting me, got my heamatology mixed up. Should have known better [:I]

Last time I gave blood I found my way over to the goodies table and was drinking a small cup of Mountain Dew.  It got harder and harder to hold on too and the next thing I knew, 3 large nurses were escorting me to the ground.  I had to lay there with my feet on a chair while everyone there stepped over me.

I've been donating blood since my active duty days. Since I've been here in Fla. I've donated over 5 gallons of my A pos. type. The blood center even gave me a mug when I made the 5 gal. club.  I have so much scarring on my arms that I've been accused of being a druggie.

Want a horror story?  I've got one for you.  Back when I first started donating blood I was active duty Air Force.  One of my co-workers family was involved in a serious auto accident and in dire need of my blood type. He came to the shop and asked for volunteers as blood is an expensive commodity. I of course volunteered as did many others.  They took us to a small community hospital in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
We were paired off with different hospital staff.  I happened to get a first year medical student. Here's where the horror begins.  He stuck my arm with the needle (so far so good), then he says hold still while I get some tape.
While his back was turned, btw I was holding still, but he blood in my veins weren't.  As it pulsed through the tube it forced the needle out of my arm. The needle, of course, hit the floor.  I looked at my arm and saw my blood pouring out of the hole left in my arm. The medical student turned around and a look of horror came across his face as he started pressing on my arm trying to stop the bleeding, however he wasn't very successful. Before I could say anything he reaches down and picks up the needle off the floor and shoves it back into the hole in my arm. After the donating process was completed I sat up on the gurney only to discover the back of my t-shirt and fatigue pants were soaked with MY blood. That's when I started feeling dizzy, needless to say. When one of the nurses came in about that time, she exclaimed, "Oh, my God! What happened in here?!"  The rest of the donors heard her and came rushing in, including the guy whose family I was donating for.  I was very thirsty so they brought me several glasses of OJ  The guy felt so bad about it he took us all out for a steak dinner. Which helped to make me feel a lot better.  It took awhile before I got the nerve to donate blood again.

Yeah, and they didn't even fill the pint bottle. I never did find out if they used my blood or not, as I know that it had to be contaminated.  BTW the med student to left the room, as he had no other customers.