donate plasma

So I went and was there at 7:30 (like they said to be there at) and you know what? The building was filled! I would have been there for about 4 possibly 5 hours. I forgot to bring something to read too. So I left. I’m going to come on a weekday instead of the weekend and I’m going to come at 7:00 instead of 7:30. This time I won’t forget my book either.

After you do the first one they’re all appointments after that so if I stick to the plan I should have it done in a decent amount of time. I’m going to try again in three days. Here’s hoping that there will not be even more people than today.

How soon can you donate whole blood after donating plasma? (48 hours?)
How soon can you donate whole blood after donating platelets? (48 hours?)
How soon can you donate platelets after donating plasma? (48 hours?)
How soon can you donate platelets after donating whole blood? (56 days?)
How soon can you donate plasma after donating platelets? (48 hours?)
How soon can you donate plasma after donating whole blood? (56 days?)

I want to donate all three at least once so I’d be nice to know. I’m trying to find the answers on-line but I’m sure that each donation center has different rules on this sort of stuff.

I think you can donate plasma 12 times a year, platelets 24 times a year, and whole blood 5 times a year. That’s strange though because this other site I was at says that you can donate plasma twice a week all year so that’s 104 times. I’m wondering if you donate plasma more that 12 times if the first place that lists that will take anything else from you. It’s all really rather confusing. I don’t think I’d donate all that much but still… I’d like to know.

Went to the plasma center and got some information. I’d have rather donated some plasma but it turns out that new donors have to come in at 7:30am in the morning (not on their website) and that returning donors make appointments (not on their website). So I guess I’ll just have to get up at 5:30am tomorrow morning and go donate some plasma.

I think it needs to be open a lot more than it is. It’s operating hours are short and there are two days a week it’s not open.

The place was packed too – which surprised me. I’m wondering how long I’m going to be waiting tomorrow morning. I’m also starting to wonder if this is worth the hassle. I want to give blood though and since I really can’t spare blood yet I figure that I’ll give the next best thing first.

I’ve been putting this off because I couldn’t stand the thought of a needle stuck in my skin for two hours. Since I had surgery recently I’m no longer illusioned with that. Now I know that they take the needle out and leave a tube to do all of the work. It’s pretty painless to have an iv.

I’m going in a month so I can give my body enough time to heal from the surgery. Then I’ll give some plasma. Yay. Super-excited now.

Now that the weather has cleared up and I know the hours that the place I want to go to operates by I can go. In two days.

Yay.

Hopefully something else won’t crop up.

I have a center near me that I want to go to in two days! :)