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Originally Posted by Tvflguy
Over the last couple years I’ve been donating blood about every four months with no issue. On May 1st I had an appt to give blood.
All my history etc checked out and they asked if I wanted to give “double red cell”. I asked questions about it. Basically it requires a smaller needle takes about 5 min longer. Bottom line when your blood is extracted it goes into a machine to separate the red blood cells from the plasma and platelets. They keep the two units of red cells and return the plasma and platelets back to the donor.
They “talked up” this double red cell donation. A donor needs to be a minimum weight and health. My red cell count was 15, which they said was great.
After about 25 min I was done and feeling well. Later that week I had my blood drawn for a doctor appt the next week. At the appt my Dr was very concerned as my RBC was 10. When I told him about the red cell donation he said it could have caused a heart attack to you. I have some kidney issues and he told me to stop giving blood. Not worth the risk to me.
So I lost 1/3 of my RBC - he said it normally takes one month to increase RBC by one point; the bone marrow creates red cells.
It’s been about a month now and I’m still fatigued and sometimes dizzy. Should slowly improve over time as red cells are replenished. So fair warning to “donators”. Esp for the double red cells. Check with your doctor. I didn’t even think of that. Better safe than sorry.
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I believe if you donate red blood cells you have to wait around 4 months to donate again. I did it once on a blood mobile.
Double Red Cell Donation | OneBlood