Donating blood

[labguides]

Prior to donating blood, are there things which one can/cannot do? I remember that one cannot take an antibiotic for a week prior, one needs to drink lots of water the day of giving blood. What others things do I need to know? I signed up to donate blood next week.

 

[tobagotwo]

Make sure you have a meal within a couple of hours before you go to donate, so your iron level will be up.

No travel to certain parts of the world for at least six months before donating, so if you visited the Mayan ruins last week, you blew it.

The antibiotics and may other drugs (including aspirin at some amounts) are not permitted. There is a list of things (you can click on each one to find out the exact regulations):
http://www.redcross.org/services/biomed/0,1082,0_557_,00.html

The water/liquids would be for after you donate.

Best wishes,

 

[labguides]

Bob,
Thanks for input on donating blood.

Mindy

 

[tobagotwo]

Wish I could still do it. I used to donate four time a year. Now I feel guilty every time I see a blood drive at work.

Hope everything goes well for you.

Best wishes,

 

[Guest]

Usually they will not take it if you are on warfarin. The last thing that they need is to give an anticoagulant to someone with severe bleeding.

 

[Harpoon]

...and ask your cardiologist first!!!!

Many cards don't like their patients donating blood, the loss of blood volume may put undue stress on a heart weakened by a valve condition (and/or whatever defect one might have) or weakened by having hand open heart surgery.


If you regularly take other meds for yoru heart or whatever, that might be problematic too.

 

[KimC]

Harpoon,

Cool avatar.

If I donated sangre, they'd have to revive me. Guess I'd do it if I needed a little excitement.

NOT!

Best,

 

[lance]

Iron rich food

Iron rich food

Prior to MVR I banked three units of my blood (1 unit per week x 3 weeks).

Cardio advised to each "lots" of dried fruit. So every day I ate a handful.

Even so, I almost passed out in the barn when I put 1/2 a bale of hay into a stall, had to hang onto the stall door to keep from falling.

I'm not sure what the feeling of weakness had to do with anything else, but may be ask about iron medication. My surgery was due in about a week so I was not in very good condition.

Cheers

 

[Guest]

It is easier to believe that giving that much blood and having a bad valve caused you to almost pass out than to relate it to any medication.

I call this the alien explanation. When somebody comes to the clinic and their INR is low, I am much more likely to believe that they forgot a dose of warfarin than I am to believe that a UFO came down and the alien sucked the warfarin out of their blood.