Pre-Op Blood Donation

What Neesie said. Plasma and platelets get regenerated pretty quickly, within days, but red cells take three months to get replaced. So having blood banked right before surgery means you would be short of red cells by about 8 percent, right when you need them most.

I lost 6 or seven units last year with a bad bleed, and even at that, they only gave me a double unit of red cells. You can afford to lose some during plastics, and it's no big deal. It's just better not to start off already down.