Donating blood... question about it

I know it's too late now.. but a protein bar in the future? Or half of one? I don't think you'll die without eating - hydration is much more important!

I haven't gotten to give blood since I lived in Mad Cow Land. Sigh. I donated regularly prior to that.

Yeah, it never occurred to me to bring a protein bar... and I have one, all smushed up in my workout bag for emergencies (Hey, it's still sealed in the wrapper)

At least there were peanuts... of course, I ate the entire serving and THEN glanced at the package... 290 calories?! I don't know what I thought it would be... I rarely eat peanuts (usually almonds, cashews, pecans), and I don't know why I thought it would be way less! LOL

But better than the pretzels/ nutter butter cookies/ sun chips/ amos chocolate chip cookies... or full sugar sodas or full sugar gatorade... right?! LOLOL

Totally better. Nuts are "healthy" so, clearly, they have no calories!! :D

I eat nuts all the time while maintaning. Lots of nuts. Like really a lot. That also helps me stay regular, plus nuts like Peanuts helps often when I have mild nausea.

The have lot of calories ,- but as long as I don't indulge in carbs - I have no problem losing and maintaining ....

Now crackers, bread, cookies - that calories stick to my everything: hips, belly, etc.

Nuts do have bad rap as "high calories food" and they are. But nuts in itself may be good for you.

So, another stupid question....

The worries about being low iron and donating...

Are you saying that by donating I am putting myself at risk of lowering my iron levels (permanently/long term) by donating blood? Or just that if you are already low it makes you feel poorly for a given period of time?

Because, my brain can't wrap around the idea that it'll affect me long term...

Read my long reply below.

Eassentially, make sure where your ferritin is first. If it's under 100, don't donate. Ferritin is iron not currently used, but in your retirement account. Spend that retirement account too early, you'll be screwed later.

A year and a half ago, I had my labs drawn right before my yearly checkup. In between labs and my exam the next week, I had a bleeding ulcer and lost a ton of blood. My BP bottomed out ar 58/38. Over the course of just a couple of days, my hematocrit went from 53.2 to 21.6, my hemoglobin from 17.3 to 7.2, and my ferritin from 364 to 17.

If my ferritin had been on the "low end of normal" to begin with, I'd have been screwed. Totally screwed. They gave me a double unit of red cells in the hospital, and I started taking 300mg of carbonyl iron a day after I got home. After 6 montgs, my ferritin was only up to 30.

Some thibgs, like B12, come up really quickly with good supplementation. Other things, like ferritin, don't come up with anything but an iron infusion.

It's really great you want to donate. I've got a big hug for you for even wanting to. Just be careful of your own health first.

Are you saying that by donating I am putting myself at risk of lowering my iron levels (permanently/long term) by donating blood?

yes.

Most of us post op RNY have problem absorbing iron.

That's why testing iron and ferritin is critical. Ferritin is the "saving account: for iron. Once that runs out- and we don't absorb oral iron that well - we may be in a lot of trouble.

Sorry, this is long.

Around here, they don't require you to eat after, but they offer all kinds of junk. Eating really isn't necessary. But you should drink lots of water, before, during and after. Don't drink OJ or other juice.

Blood has different components. The bulk is plasma, and it takes a few days to replace. Platelets take only 3 days to replace. The critical part, for us, is the red cells. It takes around 90 days to replace those.

You can donate whole blood, plasma, platelets, or red cells. Because of the various volumes of those things, and how fast they are replaced by your body, there are different wait times between donations. You can give platelets every 7 days, plasma every 28 days, whole blood every 56 days, and red cells every 112 days.

They only check our hemoglobin right before a donation. If you are in good health, most of us have a qualifying hemoglobin. Much more important for us is our ferritin, and they don't check that. Ferritin is what can drop really low for us after WLS. And when it bottoms out, we feel like crap, and it's amost impossible to raise without iron infusions. And it makes no sense to donate blood if you end up needing infusions to compensate.

You want to hold on to as many red cells as you can, so avoid whole blood or red cell donations. If you insist on donating, try platelets. But that means you'll be sitting next to the apheresis machine for 2 to 3 hours, depending on your platelet count. They can take a single, double, or triple unit of platelets.

The apheresis machine takes so long because it rakes your blood, separates out the component it is keeping, either red cells, plasma, or platelets, and then pumps the rest back into your arm, along with an anticoagulant to keep things moving. So, you get to keep most of your red cells.

Most, but not all. You lose some red cells in the machine. And they take a good size packet of whole blood that goes off separately for testing. They test for everything they can, to keep blood supplies safe. And they keep meticulous track of how many red cells you lost, to keep YOU safe. So, while I was allowed to donate platelets every 7 days, or a maximum of 24 times in a 12 month period, there were times they cut me off a little early, because I had lost more than the allowed amount of red cells.

When I was huge, they were guaranteed to get triple platelets from me every time. After losing, it was usually just doubles.

Also, the universal donor type for whole blood or red cells is Type O Negative. The universal donor forlasma is AB Negative. There is no universal platelet donor. I am O Negative, so they would have loved my red cells. But I only could have donated 3 times a year. They were much happier to get 24 donations of triple platelets instead.

It is illegal to pay donors for blood used for transfusion to people, so whenever you see that on tv, it's a myth. Some places pay a few bucks for plasma, but only because it's used for medical experiments and not transfusion. But the Red Cross often entices people with little gifts to encourage donation -- technically not a payment.

Thank you!!!

It was long, but written in nice layman's terms so my head didn't try to explode reading it

I will play it by ear... I used to donate about 3-4 times a year (that's when they come to our office, I've only gone in once to do the platelets when they sent an email asking)...

For now, I'll just cut it down to 1-2 times a year if my ferratin stays in a good place.

I'm A+ blood type

I remember it because I jokingly say it's the only A+ I've ever earned

I'm A+ also, and they loooooove my platelets. It's the second-most-common blood type, so there's always a need for them.