Donating Blood

The blood corporation in my city, United Blood Services will not allow anyone who uses injectable medications to donate. So when they’d have blood drives and encourage all the teachers to donate, they wouldn’t take my blood. They said I could bring a box of cookies instead, but it just ain’t the same!! :frowning:

So when I visited a friend in Cleveland, I tried to donate at American Red Cross, but they wouldn’t take my blood either, because I’d had a coronary artery spasm, and was on medication for it. The exact same medication would have been OK if it had been for hypertension! :frowning:

So good luck, and be sure to follow the good advice given by others here! :slight_smile:

Thanks, Tee, for asking this question - been wondering about it myself! I want to donate.

I donate at the American Red Cross blood drive every time they come to my church ( two three times a year). Incidentally, I am donatingtnext Sunday. I make sure that I am in range, and always take a snack for afterward. They have them provided there ( packaged cookies and crackers and not exactly what I eat) but I prefer my lower carb choices… I have never ran high as a result and just took it easy for about an hour or two afterward,( no marathons for me then-lol)

I was never able to donate when the monthly “red geraniums bloomed” ;and I was almost always slightly-to-very-anemeic. Now that I am ‘mature’, no problem with blood donations. I have never been turend down becuase I was a type One diabetic

God Bless,
Brunetta

thanks so much!!!

thanks - that really helped. i wasnt even born in 1980, so im hoping that solves the whole beef insulin thing…

It’ll go fine, I’ve done it dozens of times. The red cross will let you do it, some private firms wont, for reasons that are unclear to me.

When United Blood Services says no to anyone who takes injectable drugs, it sounds to me like they think we’re all junkies. As if a real junkie would even admit he shoots up! The illogicality of the human mind never fails to amaze me.

I had melanoma so they won’t take my blood. I can’t be an organ or bone marrow donor, either. I think being able to donate is a privilege and it makes me sad that I can’t do it anymore. If I let myself get morose about it, I feel like “tainted goods”.

I always make a financial donation when there’s a blood drive at work. I also send out a “please donate for me” e-mail to my buddies at work. Sometimes that’s all the nudge people need to go make a donation. Baking cookies for the troops on blood-drive day helps, too.

There are always ways for the “tainted” to be of service. ;0)

the reason one deals with high blood sugars later is that the quantity of blood in the blood stream has been decreased. It’s as if a 175 lb person has become a 110 lb person and now deals with more spikes. Drink, drink, drink. Boost your fluids and you won’t have that siege of hyperglycemia.

I find that hard to believe, if it was dangerous for the receiver, why would it be OK to donate in the states? All they require is to be well controlled.

I am turned down more often because my iron level is too low, not because I’m diabetic!!! Never been turned down because of my diabetes. (I’m in Michigan)

Like, EVERYONE has insulin in their blood? And diabetics don’t typically have more than anyone else, so far as I know. This is about as total BS as you can get!!!

yea, right!