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giving blood
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22-08-2004 10:53pm#1
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Giving blood is fine. They usually set up in a big hall, set up a few screens, put out a few trolley-beds, then there's a 'receptionist' when you go in. Speak to him/her, tell them you want to donate and it's your first time, they'll give you a long form to fill out.
Form asks for all the standard stuff - name, address, age, blah blah. Then it asks questions that go through your personal history to some degree - have you had a tattoo or a body piercing in the last 12 months, have you ever injected a substance with a syringe, have you ever had sex with a gay man, or had sex with a man who you know is bisexual, are you on medication and if so what, have you had a cold/flu in the last week and so on.
Based on your answers, they accept or reject your application. If they reject you, they'll go through the reasons why with you. If they accept you, you go sit in a waiting chair.
First time you're called from the waiting chair will be for an anaemia test - you go to the nurse, discuss anything you're unsure of on the form, he/she will use a little plastic device with a tiny sharp point on the inside of it to prick your finger and take a drop of blood. They drop the blood into a wee liquid container, if it sinks you're fine, if it floats your iron levels are a bit low.
If your blood sinks, back to the waiting chair for your donation turn. When you get called you'll go to a trolley, lie down and a nurse comes to you, they wrap a blood pressure band around the top of your arm to get the blood to flow, then put a needle in the crook of your elbow. They'll fill three or four vials with blood for testing - these go off to the lab to make sure you've not got anything you may have fibbed about on your form, or been unaware that you've contracted. It also gets tested for bloodtype etc. Then they take a pint of blood (they basically switch packages on the other end of the line that you're bleeding through - vial to vial to bloodbag - you feel none of this, they don't go adjusting the needle to do it or anything).
Once they're done, they take out the needle and hold some cotton wool against your elbow. Then you get a plaster, you need to make sure you're not light-headed, then some biccies and tea and off you trundle, feeling like you've done something useful.
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No, no thats what their forManach wrote:And of course afterwards you can be as anti-social as you like with the biccies, gobbling them away muttering "mine, mine". Or is that just my own unique reaction to giving blood.
The only problem I have with giving blood is that youre there a couple of hours for something that could take 10 minutes. Oh well, civic duty and all that, I always go when they're in town.0 -
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Gurgle wrote:No, no thats what their for
The only problem I have with giving blood is that youre there a couple of hours for something that could take 10 minutes. Oh well, civic duty and all that, I always go when they're in town.
In my local donations office you just make an appointment so that you're not waiting around too long. Last time took me about 30mins but the thing that I love most about giving blood is the plentiful supply of Cadburys Mini Rolls and such an excuse to eat about 3 on the spot.0 -
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http://www.ibts.ie/clinic_search.cfm?mID=4&sID=89
Click on your county and it gives a schedule of clinics.
To answer Sleipnir's question, they still give Guinness in Limerick anyway, and Heineken too, I think. I stick to the tea and biscuits though, and there's no mini-rolls either
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da_deadman wrote:Can anyone just post up a little list of the donation centres in the city (pref. Southside / D4 area).
the only one I know is the main one on Dolier St, just around the corner from Westmoreland St.
In fact I'll be there tomorrow evening, cause they rang today looking for me! Come 6:30 I'll be sipping Guinness and eating mini rolls from their canteen 0 -
Yeah thats the one I go to too, they have nice stuff, like mini rolls as well
I think everyone who can should have to give blood at least twice a year - I mean its not that much trouble to do once every every six months or so. and it generally doesn't take too long in there 0 -
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Gurgle wrote:The only problem I have with giving blood is that youre there a couple of hours for something that could take 10 minutes. Oh well, civic duty and all that, I always go when they're in town.
Oh, so it's not just where I go that takes hours for a 10-20 minute procedure! Only been giving blood for about a year now. The free Guinness is always handy! 0 -
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Zhane wrote:apparently im not allowed to give blood cos im gay...
Nothing personal but gay or straight most random punters who donate blood are people I'd rather not share a bathroom with let alone bodily fluids.
If, God forbid, I was in an accident where I needed a transfusion and I had the choice between donated blood and something "brewed" in a laboratory I would go for the latter. Not trying to put down people who donate blood but AIDs came along and got into the transfusion system before anyone knew what was happening. People got infected before preventative action was taken. The same thing has probably happened with CJD. With the best will in the world how do we know that the next nasty (or nastier) virus or prion timebomb is not in blood being donated daily by all you good people?0 -
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There are questions on the form about injected drugs. To me at least that means they don't care what you smoked.Victor wrote:Do you think if a doctor gives someone codeine that they want that does upped with some heroin?
(They've never sent any of mine back anyhow)
Yeah, they are a bit on the restrictive side about who can donate, while at the same time complaining about there not being enough doners.Zhane wrote:apparently im not allowed to give blood cos im gay...
As a state organization, they have to be way over-cautious or they would end up in another tribunal. This is Ireland after all, there are plenty of peasants & drones who would go ballistic if they knew the blood they got could have come from someone of such persuasion.0 -
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Sleepy wrote:Also, why can't they just accept the donations, place them in the fridge while a sample of the donation is checked for the various different things that can contaminate it?
That protects us against known contaminants.
I know it's improbable but what if there is a new virus, even deadlier than AIDs, which let's say infects middle class white men in their 40s and 50s - (maybe something they catch on golf courses ) which takes another couple of years to present itself and therefore there would be no test for it? The prohibition on gays would look a bit silly then wouldn't it? 0 -
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First things first: If you've smoked any dope in the week or so before the test, they'll find it in your blood, and they won't take it. Happened to a friend in Belfast. After all, you can't have patients waking up stoned in hospital
Then: The reason they refuse so many people from donating is because of the HIV scandal. They could put in better screening, but they don't have the money so they just turn people away. It's 6 of one, half dozen of the other really. If they take everyone, they overstretch themselves and risk saving someone's life with a pint of blood and giving them HIV at the same time. If they take less people, then they don't have enough blood, but at least it keeps them out of the media.....0 -
I can personally definitively refute that claim.Civilian_Target wrote:First things first: If you've smoked any dope in the week or so before the test, they'll find it in your blood, and they won't take it. Happened to a friend in Belfast. After all, you can't have patients waking up stoned in hospital
As for waking up stoned - Thats the best thing that could possibly happen. They should be grateful for getting painkiller-enhanced blood.0 -
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Well, yesterday on my way home, I decided to actually go into the blood clinic in Dolier Street rather than walk past it like I usually do, and give blood for the first time (I had no plans for the evening and basicly thought, "why the hell not"). So, for all you newbies (now that I'm no longer amongst you ), heres exactly what happens.
Walk in, sit down at a desk, woman takes your name and dob, and then says "You haven't been here before, have you?". Once this is established, she hands you a form, which you fill in at a seat and leave in a box, this takes about 10 mins, covers all the obvious questions along with some innocent sounding ones like "Have you spent more than 3 years in the UK since 1980?" or "Have you done coke in the past year?"
Then you are called in to be interviewed by a nurse who asks you a bit about your medical history, as well as asking you things like "Have you ever had anal or oral sex from another man?" with an alarmingly straight face.
Next thing, you get sent up to the iron tester, who basicly says that he's going to test your iron level, and puts your hand on a red pad on the desk, thats wired up to a little red machine. He tells you that this is an iron tester and that it'll test your blood to see that you're not anaemic and stuff, is that OK? You say yes, he says "Hang on a second, and your iron count should appear on the machine" and as soon as you look away he touches your finger with a little pen that takes a sample of your blood, with a feeling not unlike being pinched. It made me jump and he laughed and said "Hey, had to get your blood somehow, don't worry, the worst part of your entire time here is over". He looked at my iron count and asked if I'd had dinner. I hadn't, and he knew it, so he pulled out a Mars bar and a carton of orange and said "Eat these or get some free food from the canteen, and then we'll take your blood." I duly ate them, and then he sent me into the donation room, full of chairs not entirely unlike lazy boys.
You sit down, and a band is put around your arm, and you're given a squeezy toy. You lie back, and a nurse chats to you for a minute while she monitors you blood presusre and stuff, with a machine that goes ping. Then a doctor comes over and says that they're now ready to take your blood, that they're going to put the needle in now. She then took one look at my arm and said "You work with computers, don't you?" I said yes, she replyed "You can always tell by the arms, the keyboard side veins are usually practicly invisible and very hard to reach, hopefully this won't hurt a bit". She stuck the needle in, and missed the vein. Again, felt like a fairly hard pinch. She apologised, and said they'd give it another go if that was OK with me. I agreed, and she hit it the second time, and it was virtually painless.
The doctor moved on, and the nurse kept chatting, reminding me every so often to squeeze the bone toy I had in my hand. 15 mins later it was all done, they stuck a plaster on, and I was left to rest for a few minutes, feeling a bit dozy, but no more than that, before going the canteen, where they supplied me with sandwitches, chocolate, crisps and orange, all free. Jokingly I said to the woman at the counter "Don't you serve Guinness any more?" "Only to those who ask for it." she replied, pulling a bottle of Guinness out from under the counter. I ate and drank my fill, pretty slowly because the arm the needle had been in was quite stiff, and felt the drowiness lift. In 15 mins I was as right as rain, apart from a stiff left arm, and I continued on my merry way.
Overall, a pretty good experience, surprisingly relaxing and enjoyable, fairly little pain (just 2 pinches, and 15 minutes of an uncomfortable tickling sensation in your arm), a stiff arm for the evening, with free food, drink and friendly company. I'll be donating again in a few months time I think 0 -
Civilian_Target wrote:First things first: If you've smoked any dope in the week or so before the test, they'll find it in your blood, and they won't take it. Happened to a friend in Belfast. After all, you can't have patients waking up stoned in hospital
Oh my god that's such a load of rubbish The only drugs they're worried about really are intravenous (like heroin) or intranasal (like coke) drugs, as you can catch HIV from the process of taking these. 0 -
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How do you get HIV from taking coke?eth0_ wrote:Oh my god that's such a load of rubbish The only drugs they're worried about really are intravenous (like heroin) or intranasal (like coke) drugs, as you can catch HIV from the process of taking these.0
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