you can ask for a more experienced phlebotomist. If you are young and healthy they will often assign newer ones to draw your blood because it’s how they get good, instead of working on like, old wrinkly people.
Its definitely getting worse. I've donated to non-profits 56 times so far since I was 18 because I'm O- and feel obligated since it can help so many people (plus I can just pick up a 6 pack of cheap beer and get fucked up for like 9 bucks) and I definitely think the experience has become more unwelcoming and mechanical over the years
I've donated to non-profits 56 times so far since I was 18 because I'm O-
Wow, that's excellent! Sincerely, 56 pints of O- is saving lots of lives!
I definitely think the experience has become more unwelcoming and mechanical over the years
I donated to the Red Cross for years, until I had a monumentally crappy donation experience. After that I started donating at the children's hospital. The people there are so nice! It seems like they must select for that. "Have you noticed how sweet and pleasant Judy is? We should ask her if she will join the blood donation unit."
Agreed 100%. "What gets recognized gets repeated." Adults have a lot of bad days, getting random text telling me I helped saved a life would not just give me a much needed boost but also likely to schedule m next donation.
There's something very endearing and intriguing about this concept- just getting an uplifting text from some anonymous person at random times to put a smile on your face.
No further messages or back-n-forth conversation, but just one quick message to brighten your day.
I have donated 10 gallons. At the donation center, they tell you that a pint of blood can save 3 lives. That seems like bullshit to me. I don't know the actual number, but I like to assume the inverse, that 3 pints saves 1 life. At that rate, 10 gallons is about 27 lives. Even if the reality is only 20 lives, that's still pretty cool, right?
I'm not a particularly saintly person. I donated a lot when I was living in a town that had a Red Cross blood donation setup every Thursday night at the Kiwanis club. After donating, while we were eating snacks and drinking juice to restore our blood sugar, at the table where we sat was the sign-up sheet for the next time we could donate, 6 weeks in the future. So we signed up whenever we donated! They would call to remind us the Wednesday before. It was super-easy to donate 8 times per year => 1 gallon.
I always wonder why they don't have donation centers at the mall, open all the time.
Joe: I need to buy some clothes and stuff, I'll be ready to go in an hour.
Moe: OK, I'll go donate blood. Meet you in an hour!
A healthier heart and vascular system
Regular blood donation is linked to lower blood pressure and a lower risk for heart attacks. “It definitely helps to reduce cardiovascular risk factors,” says DeSimone.
What’s the connection? “If your hemoglobin is too high, blood donation helps to lower the viscosity of the blood, which has been associated with the formation of blood clots, heart attacks, and stroke,” DeSimone says. “Interestingly, these benefits are more significant in men compared to women. We think maybe it’s because women have menstrual cycles, so they do it naturally without donating blood.”
There's a joke lurking there, somewhere. "Donating blood puts the men in menstruation." Someone funnier than me will discover the joke someday.
The American Red Cross uses the "Save three lives" line and has kind of been moving away from it. They often now say "lives impacted" which feels more accurate. A whole blood donation is typically separated into its three components, red blood, plasma, and platelets, which is where the "three" comes from. One donation can be transfused into three different people.
They recently found that donating blood removes PFOA "forever chemicals" from your body. Sure, they are going into the recipient, but I guess that's not your problem
By that logic doing literally anything for anyone is lifesaving.
Oh you paid your employees so now they can afford to eat? Congrats. You're a lifesaver.
Let's not pretend that the average donor thinks this message means anything other than their blood was used to directly save a person who was bleeding acutely.
You don't have to be so negative. While it is deceptive and not as life saving as it seems, it still helps prevent death. It's going to be a net positive even if used for cosmetic surgery.
I'm not even sure if the messages they receive specify that it saved a life, or if it was just "used".
142
u/Skips-mamma-llama 15d ago
That's amazing, I've donated blood probably 6ish times, if I got these texts or emails I'd definitely be donating more often