You know I was driving through the scummy section of town on the way to a PNP the other day and just kind of glanced over and saw one of those donation offices. It is very creepy and nasty the line of homeless people who wait to sell their donations to these plasma banks I cant imagine why anyone would ever go to one of these centers to be a recipient. I mean come on they are homless unkempt drunks shooting loads into cups for more booze money. :eek:

Donating plasma is a little more advanced than shooting a load into a cup.

A few of my friends from school have gone and done this. Said there was a lot of crackheaded lookin people in there donating. :eek: I think they only do the "pulling" there and do the "filling" somewhere else, so people dont see who's getting what from who.

The kids I know said they get 20 bucks the first time,
something close to 40 the next time
Back down to 20 and so on.


Edit: Then again, this is Long Beach we're talkin about here.

I give. My company makes the machines to suck your plasma out of your blood, and put the rest back.

Be a man. Save a life. Give!

Bob wrong plasma :D

oh...

Oh hell no. I've made it 28 years without ever getting blood drawn I'm not gonna ruin that streak! Not to mention I'm scared of needles. :emb2:

Only way I'm donating is by accident and I'm donating it to the shop floor! :D

I thought there were certain guidelines that are followed when it comes to making a "deposit"?

apparently not down on lvb and 3rd st bum central.

Originally posted by MattS
Oh hell no. I've made it 28 years without ever getting blood drawn I'm not gonna ruin that streak! Not to mention I'm scared of needles. :emb2:

I'm scared of them too. but the way I look at it, I have to look myself in the mirror every morning.

now, when my sister was studying to be a RN, she offered me $100 (back when that was really big money to me) to let her practice. i turned that down. a grand wouldn't have been enough

NQS

Originally posted by MattS
Oh hell no. I've made it 28 years without ever getting blood drawn I'm not gonna ruin that streak! Not to mention I'm scared of needles. :emb2:

Only way I'm donating is by accident and I'm donating it to the shop floor! :D
Pffft! It's only a 12ga needle you pussy!:flipoff2:

I've done it on and off since I was 18 and the technology's come a long way.
When I was 18 you just filled a bag then they took it to a back room to sepperate the plasma and after that you got your blood back. Now they do everything with a machine like bobzuki mentioned, kinda cool to watch the whole process. Been about 5 years since I last gave but I still got the needle scar.

never done the apheresis thing. I've donated about 4 gallons throughout my life though.

I've tried to do the apheresis thing, but the two times I made it to the donation center, I couldn't give. Once because I had a 'fever' (I ate a burger on the drive over) and the other because I couldn't wait the 40 mins to get started.

I'll have to give it a shot again.

Ive been donating whole blood at least annually since around 1972. No biggie, just dont blow off the juice the tech offers and a 5-10 minute sit down after avoids getting dizzy.

D.

I've never donated plasma but in the past I've sold it like a $2 puerto rican whore :grinpimp:

...people who wait to sell their donations...

Is it possible to "sell a donation?"

Originally posted by DVanVorous
Ive been donating whole blood at least annually since around 1972. No biggie, just dont blow off the juice the tech offers and a 5-10 minute sit down after avoids getting dizzy.

D.

No dizziness with donating plasma since you get your red blood cells back and no juice either.
A little tip, try to drink about a gallon of water throughout the day before you go, it'll drop the time you're "hooked up" quite a bit.
Funny thing is ther are a lot of people who can donate whole blood but can't give plasma. Plasma takes larger needles so you need larger veins.

Hell yeah I give it up at every available opportunity. I have O POS so you can all have sip of my nectar. I give whole blood, plasma, and marrow to any poor fawker that needs it. After 100+ shots from uncle sam I ain't scard of any needles.

I'm not allowed to donate under Mad Cow Disease Mitigation Controls.

Originally posted by obex26
I cant imagine why anyone would ever go to one of these centers to be a recipient.

Plasma centers DON'T have recipients, in fact they only use the plasma for testing purposes, such as new chemsitry analyzers, etc... These plasma centers make a killing mainly on students and the homeless. They pay about people $150 a month to "donate" plasma. At least that's how much they do here in Utah. Then they sell the plasma to the biomed companies for thousands or they are a biomed company that uses the plasma for their testing.

The plasma centers don't sell or donate the plasma for patients who need transfusions. Plasma is not given to a patient if their plasma levels are low. Saline is the main solution that is used for patients.

Here's some tips for those of you needle phobs.
1. DON'T WATCH!
2. Don't let a nurse or a practicing phlebotomist draw your blood. Most nurses, but not all, suck at drawing blood. Let a phlebotomist or a med tech do it. Nurses don't do draw blood all day like us med techs and phlebs do. It's our job.
3. Don't move around! It's hard, but you have to stay still.

Originally posted by sk8zero


Plasma centers DON'T have recipients, in fact they only use the plasma for testing purposes, such as new chemsitry analyzers, etc...

Some does get used for direct I.V. treatment but most of it gets used for burn treatment since when your skin is burned off you tend to leak plasma directly.

My nephew is a phlebotomist/manager of a plasma center.

Originally posted by nakona
I'm not allowed to donate under Mad Cow Disease Mitigation Controls.

Me too, so some pussy needs to stepup up and take our place ;) :flipoff2:

I got through college in the late 70's selling blood plasma. Back then it was $10 a shot, could do it twice a week if you kept your blood protein level up. Used to eat raw eggs in milk (like in 'Rocky').

I hated needle, too. Got so used to it I could watch them stick those big-ass spikes in. After graduation I lost that ability, when I started earning money!

They used to do it twice, take out a bag, spin it, put the cells back in, then do it again. The worst was putting the cells back in, they were cold as hell and it chilled your whole arm.

Sounds stupid now, but back then a case of beer was only $5.

Dave

Originally posted by nakona
I'm not allowed to donate under Mad Cow Disease Mitigation Controls.

Awe crap he lives here...
MadCowDungBeetle
Should I put myself under Quarentine?

:flipoff2:

I've been donating whole every 56 days since 1994, give or take a few weeks.

Started cause I just thought it was a good thing to do.

But it's illegal to BUY or SELL blood in Canada, so our donations really are donations. Or as I like to think about it, it's a barter for those shortbread cookies!!!

They used to do the plasma thing in the 80's, and then it lost favor for some reason. Their trying to bring it back, cause you can donate plasma more often, however, I think I'll just stick to whole blood donations (less chance of a mistake!)

Wayne

Originally posted by MattS
Oh hell no. I've made it 28 years without ever getting blood drawn I'm not gonna ruin that streak! Not to mention I'm scared of needles. :emb2:



PUSSY!!

Next time I go in to donate blood I get my gallon pin :D :D

Plasma centers DON'T have recipients, in fact they only use the plasma for testing purposes, such as new chemsitry analyzers, etc...

And they don't have recipients! I.V. treaments are done by hospital or clinic staff. Plasma centers are not authorized to give I.V. treament. Sorry, I forgot to edit before I submitted, so the only should not be there.

Some does get used for direct I.V. treatment but most of it gets used for burn treatment since when your skin is burned off you tend to leak plasma directly.
My nephew is a phlebotomist/manager of a plasma center.

I don't believe that your nephew would say that his plasma center does I.V. treatment. Nor do I believe that any hospital's blood bank would receive plasma from a plasma center. In the USA, that is.

I am a med tech at a U of U hospital clinc. We do use the patient's plasma for topical use on lesions and some ocular treatments. We also perform I.V. infusion of plasma for patients with coag deficiencies.
The burn units use plasma from the same patient it for the growth factors to help in regrowth of tissue, but I've only seen them use it topically. I maybe mistaken, since I don't work in that dept. If they are leaking plasma, it isn't practical or cost effective to use donated plasma. It's just as effective and much more cost effective to use saline solutions.

However, the hospital's blood bank is where the plasma is donated and taken from for the I.V. treatment. Not from a plasma center, at least not here in Utah. I can't imagine that a hospital in any state would allow a plasma center to be able to donate plasma for patient use. The hospital would make more money and it would be safer.

In Colorado, Belle Bonfils blood centers do almost all the blood sucking for the hospitals.

No dizziness with donating plasma since you get your red blood cells back and no juice either.

Mental note on that. I give whole blood if only because the Bonfils center doesnt do the other (that Im aware of).

'Sides by me (and othe CO long term residents) giving whole blood, the recipient gets a few extra Red cells that a "flat lander" doesnt have. Us high altitude residents compensate for the rarified air at over a mile high altitude by "packing", something they found out about with the Andean indians and other high altitude folks while getting the atheletes ready for the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City (another mile high place) or so Ive read anyway... :D

D.

Originally posted by DVanVorous
Mental note on that. I give whole blood if only because the Bonfils center doesnt do the other (that Im aware of).


Yes, every Bonfils center (that I know of) does apheresis. I know for SURE that the center at Lowry, and the one at Denver West do - I've given platelets & plasma at both.

Yes, every Bonfils center (that I know of) does apheresis. I know for SURE that the center at Lowry, and the one at Denver West do - I've given platelets & plasma at both.

The only places Ive donated in CO at are the facility in Boulder and when they show up at the Auraria campus. The Auraria thing is strictly whole blood donation every semester IIRC, Boulders facility probably does do both, just never did anything more than the whole blood deal.

I might be a problem for the techs though, small deep vessels run in the family and Im no exception. Last time they poked me 3x to find one that didnt cause hassles for a whole blood draw. Could be the ole bod is telling me that it doesnt approve of being poked voluntarily. Course thats not stopping me from a visit tomorrow at 3 PM... :D

D.

I donate and it's "fix" the Jeep money.

It brings me closer to my Jeep, or some crap like that.

Well, with a set paycheck and two kids, with a wife currently out of work the extra mony helps.

Originally posted by nakona
I'm not allowed to donate under Mad Cow Disease Mitigation Controls.

Mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! :)

Wanted my 10 gallon donor card. Ditto, no longer elgible to donate (lived in Europe for 5 years).

So until they have a screening test, no more donations. :( Bummer is when the Blood & Tissue bank would call saying "we need B+ as we are down to a only a few pints"

:beer: those those to donate!

Side note... worse time donating... mobile blood bank. They didn't put down the stabilizers, so every time I stood up I started feeling dizzy. DOH! :D

Tom :usa: