One Blood platelet donation 08/06/2015.
 

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You may want to try donating platelets at the One Blood building in Lady Lake in Spanish Plaines Shopping Center on Bella Cruz Drive.

You can donate platelets quite more frequently and they have a wide range of movies you can choose to watch while you are immobilized with a needle in each arm. It is a very uncomfortable 90 minutes or so but it sounds like platelet donations are badly needed. This is especially true for me as I have the rarest blood type. How To Target Type AB- - Donate Blood

I watched Skyfall for about 100 minutes or so before I was done. This was in preparation for the next Bond movie coming out in a few months.

They also now seem to have a lot more options with the OneBlood Rewards like Barnes and Noble, Regal Theater, some major retailers, restaurants, etc. Share Your Power - Donate Blood

I donate platelets every 2 weeks on their regular donor list. I asked about what platelets are used for and they said most go for cancer treatments and there is a waiting list at the hospitals for platelets. They even told me that when I was donating, my information was fed into the computer and many times they have a match who is waiting for my donation. They also said that in the past, they have had hospitals and even the Governor calling them for platelets. Seeing that need, I will donate as long as I can. There was one man that died recently at 100 who had donated platelets for the last time in the spring. My Hero.

You must know their movie collection fairly well?

I usually donate on the blood mobiles and that's where I can get to them via golf cart but decided to add some platelet donations this year.

I quit donating on the blood mobile because of the crowds. I donate at the center because I can get an appointment and don't have to stand in line. Also, you can't donate platelets on the bus. It's a more peaceful atmosphere in the center and being a regular, every 2 weeks, you get to know the other regulars because they have the same time and date as you. There are a lot of regular platelet donors and a lot of people can't do platelets, my daughter is not a candidate.

Some of the blood mobiles have been almost empty when I donate. Other times they are very busy. The Loud Boys' Group on 9/11/2015 will probably be quite busy. I kind of like all the commotion.

Thanks for taking hours out of your day to donate. Platelets are in great demand and play a vital role in how the body forms blood clots. Just a little info no matter what ABO you are, your platelets can be used on anyone. So find a good book and know that the four hours of your time will be greatly appreciated

Unfornuately, unless you have an audio book of 90 minutes per CD as well as player with good batteries, you can only watch TV or movies when doing platelets. I noticed a number of films that came out fairly recently at the Lady Lake OneBlood donation place. American Sniper, Marine 4 were two of these there.

You should pick something though that will not startle you in any way as you have to stay with both arms immobile.

I am often under the needle so to speak when doing whole blood for between 4 and 11 minutes. It is usually about 6 minutes though from when the needle starts drawing whole blood. 90 minutes for platelets is kind of hard after the short periods spent doing whole blood.

Yep Stopped counting at 60 gallons of regular and lost count of platelets. When you work in a blood bank for many many years your arm always had a needle in it. I cut down on my travel and do double unit ever time . I bring iPad that page can be turned with a finger, no arm movement needed.

Tal, could you explain what you mean by "an uncomfortable 90 minutes"? Is it a pain issue, or just having to be immobile?

There is only a slight amount of pain when the needles go into the veins in the arms. Also there seems to be a lot of scar tissue in frequent donors. I have only given about 6 gallons now over my life, but there does seem to be scarring now in the veins that they find easiest to get to.

It is mostly being immobile for that length of time. I am sure that the kind people there would scratch if you an itch. And they have blankets and the like too. I find that my hands get extremely cold to touch when doing platelets.

In 1985 or so, I started donating blood to impress a girl named Sandy, I worked with at Information Access Company in Belmont I had a crush on who was then dating a lawyer and now seem to have better intentions. Never did learn what happened to Sandy after I left for law school at the University of Minnesota Law School in 1986. I did run into Information Access Company employees at various law library conventions as they sold products around the country to many different kinds of libraries.

Back to the subject of platelets-- Apheresis Donations | UCLA Blood and Platelet Center - Los Angeles, CA

It's not the pain, really there is none after the "stick". It's just that as soon as they get both arms hooked up and you know you cannot move either for 90-100 minutes that you start itching some place on your body. I have learned by now that itches do not need to be scratched. There is also the problem of staying awake. The machine sounds an alarm when you doze off. Kind of embarrassing to get "Yelled At". It's a rewarding experience though and if more people did it, there would never be a shortage.

Maybe we can draw more people into donating platelets. Just keep the thread going for a while.

Different blood banks have various time frameworks for how often you can donate platelets. The National Institute of Health in Bethesda, MD has one month. NIH Clinical Center: Platelets by Apheresis

Donate Blood Platelets | American Red Cross

Why can you not move your hands? Any time I've had an IV, it was on a long enough tube that I could move.

https://youtu.be/A3NNQbWQqkI

This is a YouTube about a platelet donation with one arm. You can see how she would have trouble moving that arm all that much. The phlebotomist (needle sticker) asked me about "one arm or two" so I guess that can be done too here in Lady Lake. I wanted to spread the scarring out a little.

https://youtu.be/CncDZ6pNs08

The Canadian Blood Services YouTube on platelet donations.

This one is for you Barefoot. :ho:

Glad to see all of the new interest, hope to see lots of new faces.

They did have a sign out that they needed more platelets donors when I went there on Thursday, August 6, 2015. I hope to be able to donate platelets a few more times in the upcoming two months.


Still feel bad I am missing the 9/11/2015 Blood Donor event put on by the Loud Boys' Group. I have been to two or three of these in the past but missed out on one of them because of too low iron.

LifeSouth Community Blood Centers - Apheresis

Platelet and other information about types of donations from Life South. I have donated a few times at Life South blood mobiles in places in or near the Villages since we moved here in June or so of 2005.

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I gave platelets yesterday. Took about 110 minutes in the chair but the time went fairly quickly as I was watching The Jackal again. Whole time spent there was about three hours from coming in the door to leaving.

I have terrible veins in the arms. Can they stick in the top side of the hand like they do for taking blood from me for test?

That's a good question. You may want to call them to find out.

Here's their Lady Lake information for the Villages Donor Center:

You guys are true American Heros.

Thanks.


I was talking with one of the workers at One Blood who is usually on the Big Red Bus. She had asked me if I lived in the Villages and I said yes in one of those very close to the Villages High School.

They collect blood from 16 year olds and up. They need their parents' permission to donate. Blood Donor Basics - Donate Blood Anyway, the One Blood worker said that the Villages High School students were the best behaved of any group of high school students who were donating blood in the area they cover that this worker experienced. That's probably the Ocala, Belleview, Summerfield and surrounding areas as well as some of the communities heading towards Orlando. :pepper2:

I used to give platelets and plasma often in NY. They made you sign a waiver about lymphocytes levels. Sure enough at one of my yearly physicals my lymphocyte levels were low. Now I donate whole blood.

I think they did away with that waiver, maybe it was determined to have no significant correlation on lymphocyte levels.

They must have done away with it because I don't even know what lymphocyte levels means. They have done away with a lot of the older restrictions, like tatoos and gay sex.

I thought those were still restrictions? Tattoos with respect to those you have had within a year and sex with other men from 1977 on?

I do think they need laws that are a bit more contextual in nature rather than these very broad based restrictions. They should have various filters anyway before the blood is used.

I was told that IF you got a tattoo from a licensed business and brought the paperwork with you that you could still donate. The same with ear piercings. The gay thing is still very controversial, I spoke out of line here. The LGBT is trying to have that ruling reversed and they are doing their own blood drives. That is making the news. I don't know what they are doing with the blood though.

I asked about gays donating blood this morning and gay women can and gay men cannot.

The Questionnaires I have filled out since 1998 or so asked about sex by a man with another man. They do ask about prostitution by women and men. I do not remember if this was the same when I donated in Belmont, CA around 1984 and Minneapolis in 1988 but assume it was as AIDS was a hot topic at that time.

My Moot Court assignment at the University of Minnesota Law School was about a male nurse and discrimination by a hospital against him for fear would spread AIDS. This was in 1987-1988.

They are having a special blood drive tomorrow, that's right, SUNDAY. They need blood and platelets really bad because they had to shut down the clinics in South Florida because of the hurricane. If anyone can go, they sure would appreciate it.

This is One Blood. OneBlood Locations by County - Donate Blood

LifeSouth Community Blood Centers - News

Will donate as soon as i return to the villages. Do they offer a free cholesterol test when donating blood?

Yes, they do tell you what your cholesterol levels are, but I'm not sure how accurate they are because when I get mine checked at the DR for my annual physical, I have to fast. The one at Oneblood is different, you have to eat breakfast first so I have always wondered if there is any accuracy to it. I know that IF I have a big steak the night before giving blood, my cholesterol levels are really high. If I have fish/chicken and vegetables for a few days before, they are really low. I feel they are accurate to an extent, I just don't know what it is.

I have always wondered about the accuracy of these measurements when they ask us to fast before talking them unless you fast with some regularity.

I do like the cholesterol history you can look at if you have donated at One Blood for a while. They will show you the last ten counts of your cholesterol. Mine show a good range in the healthy measurements.

Gave platelets on 9/10/2015 at the One Blood Villages Donation Center
 

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Gave another few bags of platelets yesterday while watching most of Casino Royale.

If anyone is going into give blood/platelets/red blood cells/plasma, etc. soon Blanca at the Villages Donor Center had been asking about a movie playing at her gym. She wanted to see the ending. It sounds like it is Southpaw. I have not seen it so could not give her the information about which film this is. I only go into give platelets every 10-25 days.

Good job, keep it up. I am almost tapped out for the year. We can only donate 24 times a year, so I have a break coming.

Good for you. I am finding that my donating platelets cuts into my ability to donate whole blood. I had wanted to donate at the Loud Boys Group's Blood Drive on 10-10-2015 but this donation on Thursday 09-09-2015 made me ineligible for a few months. Something about volume of blood.

I'm not entirely sure how it works either. The girls at the donor center said that when they feed your info into the computer it decides if it take 1, 2, or 3 units. Lately I have been donating 3 units per visit. They tell me when to donate whole blood because my iron will get too high for platelets A whole blood donation drops the iron count for a while. I just do what they tell me, they are great.