To many of you, this may be old hat … but I just made my first-ever appointment to donate blood!
Yeah. At my age this is my first time. Sad, isn’t it?
What prompted the action at this stage of the game? Well, last night I was talking with my daughter (who lives in California) and she mentioned she has been donating white blood cells (quite lucratively, I might add). Since this was something I’d never heard of before, I consulted today with my friend Google. In the process, I came across the American Red Cross website and … well, the rest is history.
By the way, how many of you know about donating white blood cells? Am I really behind-the-times and it’s comparatively common? Or are some of you also in the dark? (BTW, my friend explained it quite well.)
Anyway, my appointment is on March 14th. I’ll try to remember to report back and share my experience. (Especially since I know my readers will be intensely interested! 😊)
P.S. In case you might be wondering, I’m Type B Positive.
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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Nan's Notebook 
I first started donating blood when I was in the army (3rd. Royal Tank Regiment). And since I have lived in the US, I have donated fairly regularly until about 2 years ago I was refused at the American red Cross because I had lived in England and might be a carrier of, wait for it …. Mad Cow Disease. Oh well.
Your posting has inspired me to try again soon.
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My spouse is a regular blood donor – he’s given something like 12 gallons? That might be too low, he’s been doing it for many years. He’s got lots of T-shirts and mugs and stuff from the hospital system he gives to. I can’t donate, my veins are too small. I’ve had experienced phlebotomists prod my arm for several minutes, and then say, nope, not a chance. My veins are also deep, and they roll, and they leak when poked. Just drawing blood for a blood test is a huge challenge, and I’ll wind up with a bruise from it too. So no donations from me, alas. My oldest daughter has given a couple of times, but her blood pressure is too low, and so she will come close to passing out from a donation, so she’s had to stop as well.
We need more donors, so I hope you are able to be successful at it!
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Good for you, Nan. 🙂 Soon there will be all these people walking around claiming their name is Nan. 🙂
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😄
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Nan, well done. We used to be regular donors a while back, but fell of the wagon. Thanks for the reminder. Keith
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I was a regular donor when I was on campus all the time … I am going to start going back over to UB on a regular basis (I miss the libraries!) & I’ll start donating again. I’m O positive, the universal donor, so I should donate as much as I’m allowed to.
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Better late than never, Nana, and certainly an altruistic and lifesaving thing to do. You may need blood someday – I hope never – but many people do. Blood, marrow and other donations actually save lives.
Cudos Nan!
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When I was a young dude, in the early 90’tees, I decided to do the right thing and donate. The local Red Cross donation station presented a form you had to fill in first. It asked if you had had a flue recently and other such sensible questions. I donated, but one question made me wonder. They asked wether if the donator was a homosexual and if yes, they would not take the blood. I guess it was the AIDS-scare, but I thought it was ridiculous and never went back. Perhaps I should give it a nother try.
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Yes, most probably related to AIDS, but then, one never knows in today’s world. There are a lot of bigots making rules.
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CANADA just last week dropped that question from the pre-test, or whatever they call it. Canadians everywhere are celebrating. I was not aware being gay was still a concern, I thought they had dropped that years ago. Hopefully this will soon be true all over the world.
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