F*ck it. Im giving blood in my bathroom :)

[GoneForever]

Im sick of these damn bloodbanks denying you b/c your hemo is too high. Its bullshit. That in no way will effect anyone who needs blood. So, I dont have the time to wait around to see if it goes down,etc.. so im just gonna do it myself. Im IV certified and my wife is a nurse so here's the plan. Gonna hook up a 23gauge butterfly, tape it down, and have my wife hook up a syringe to draw. Here's the problem. How many cc's would you guys guess is in a bag of blood they take at the bank when you donate? Maybe use a 60cc syringe a few times? Would I be better off just doing a full bag worth once every like 40days or maybe just do like 10cc's a week or so? Thanks

 

[deltaguy]

if i am not mistaken... they are 500cc bags.

 

[natabolic]

if i am not mistaken... they are 500cc bags.

I believe you are right delta.

 

[deltaguy]

yeah, i think that is correct but they don't fill the whole bad though.... so maybe 450ccs

 

[natabolic]

yeah, i think that is correct but they don't fill the whole bad though.... so maybe 450ccs

I dont think the bag is only 50ccs empty. Maybe closer to 100. They never really fill it near full ever. Maybe around 400-430ccs total. Maybe 450. You could be right, you usually are

 

[dragonfire101]

They are One pint Bags = 473.176ml.

So your gonna have to fill that 50cc at least 9 times. Unless your going to do 50cc once a week or something.

 

[deltaguy]

They are One pint Bags = 473.176ml.

I love precision... LOL

 

[thenatural3456]

umm i might be lost and its not really my business....


but out of curiosity why are you doing this?

 

[BIG DUB]

What are you going to do to get rid of it?

 

[Syndicate]

What are you going to do to get rid of it?

although it seems obvious, it still is one of those things you just dont throw away! lol

 

[deltaguy]

in my area u can turn it in to a clinic without question as medical waste. i get my sharps containers on line but also turn it into the clinic. no questions asked. been doing it for 5 yrs

 

[DOGGCRAPP]

Fourthgen, this is a problem that happened in my inner circle recently and Homonuncleus, MG, Troponin and myself put our heads together on it.

a) are you positive you are not chronically dehydrated?
b) do you have sleep apnea?
c) do you work around anything that emits a large amount of carbon dioxide?
d) do you take in enough salt daily?
e) Besides a regular blood bank have you tried the Red Cross or other blood banks who only look at low hemoglobin levels....heck one of the lesser known ones might pay you 20 bucks for a pint of blood.

Try this--take 4 days of non lifting, get off all creatine and anything (fat burners etc) that might dehydrate you

Mix up 2 gallons of water with one maybe being (green tea, crystal light) if you want in the morning---put in 1gram (maybe a little more) of salt in each gallon. On top of that put in one full 70cc (protein powder scoop) of glycerol in each gallon.

Start with a gallon of water by 1pm down the hatch and finish up the other gallon the rest of the day (preferably earlier than later so your not up all nite urinating).

See if you can get to 2.5 gallons a day. Try that for four days with no lifting and then try to give blood.

I could be wrong but Im willing to bet that you are chronically dehydrated before anything else (and hopefully its not anything else or you have to start looking at polycythemia) but most likely you are just not taking in as much water as you think you need to do.

You could test it yourself also after a couple days of superhydration.

Compliments of Massive G below

http://www.cliawaived.com/cf.invent...1405&head=Hgb Pro Meter (1 meter 100 strips)

 

[dragonfire101]

a) are you positive you are not chronically dehydrated?
b) do you have sleep apnea?
c) do you work around anything that emits a large amount of carbon dioxide?
d) do you take in enough salt daily?
e) Besides a regular blood bank have you tried the Red Cross or other blood banks who only look at low hemoglobin levels....heck one of the lesser known ones might pay you 20 bucks for a pint of blood.

Good points. Mine is always high because of my sleep apnea, but the Redcross calls me all thE time to donat plasma because of my high RBC. My Hemo is always acceptable levels though.

 

[OuchThatHurts]

Good points. Mine is always high because of my sleep apnea, but the Redcross calls me all thE time to donat plasma because of my high RBC. My Hemo is always acceptable levels though.

This is a fascinating topic IMO. I agree with DC in fact I've always felt that most, and I really mean most people are significantly dehydrated. And it's very hard to tell until something hits you. I get this way in the winter myself because I don't sweat as much throughout the day and just plain consume less water. You can also lose a lot of water in ways you'd never think as well (like swimming).

My own doctor told me to give a pint of blood if I needed to get an immediate drop in blood pressure. The only problem is that you have to do a little blood bank roulette.

I don't know about this "bloodletting yourself at home" idea. Couldn't you collapse a vein if you pulled back to hard? Keep us posted if you try though. I'm scheduled to send a pint off on Wednesday so I'm good for now but I'm definitely going to try super-hydrating. I've had some moderate BP problems in the past 140/100 with a HCT of 53. My HCT is always a bit on the high side just due to where my ancestry comes from (45 or so).

 

[GoneForever]

Thanks DC and the rest of you. I always thought I got enough water in and figured at my weight of 250lbs, and being dehydrated, I would think I could feel it, but maybe I need more water. I am a little worried about collapsing a vein though like OTC said. I never thought of that. Looks like filling up a 50cc 9 time is really a pain in the ass as well. Im gonna try getting extra hydrated and see what happens. I do have mild sleep apnea as well, but it goes away when I get down to around 220-230lbs.

So, if I still had no luck, does anyone know a better way I could draw my own blood other than a butterfly with syringe? Is there a device I can order that works kinda like the bloodbanks version, b/c I dont want any complications with vein collapsing.

 

[DOGGCRAPP]

Tell me exactly what place you were trying to give blood or the area you live in

 

[Sesshomaru]

You can check in your local area for research labs/firms that take blood, plasma, and other fluids just for scientific work. They can take things that dont meet RC standards.

 

[GoneForever]

Tell me exactly what place you were trying to give blood or the area you live in

here is their description. Its called the Community Blood Bank.

The Community Blood Bank is a 34 year-old, non-profit organization located in the greater Palm Springs area.It is the supplier of blood to seven area hospital customers in Coachella Valley and the High Desert. These include the U.S. Naval Hospital (29 Palms Marine Base), Eisenhower Medical Center, Desert Regional Medical Center, JFK Memorial Hospital, San Gorgonio Hospital, High Desert Medical Center, and Palo Verde Hospital. We recruit blood donors, collect blood and produce blood components, all within an accredited and regulated environment. We provide our customers with over 22,000 units of red blood cells, over 1900 units of apheresis platelets and a host of other blood products.

 

[thebrick]

It would be a shame to waste that life-giving elixir.

Seems like the blood bank is calling me every day sometimes...

 

[maldorf]

Fourthgen, this is a problem that happened in my inner circle recently and Homonuncleus, MG, Troponin and myself put our heads together on it.

a) are you positive you are not chronically dehydrated?
b) do you have sleep apnea?
c) do you work around anything that emits a large amount of carbon dioxide?
d) do you take in enough salt daily?
e) Besides a regular blood bank have you tried the Red Cross or other blood banks who only look at low hemoglobin levels....heck one of the lesser known ones might pay you 20 bucks for a pint of blood.

Try this--take 4 days of non lifting, get off all creatine and anything (fat burners etc) that might dehydrate you

Mix up 2 gallons of water with one maybe being (green tea, crystal light) if you want in the morning---put in 1gram (maybe a little more) of salt in each gallon. On top of that put in one full 70cc (protein powder scoop) of glycerol in each gallon.

Start with a gallon of water by 1pm down the hatch and finish up the other gallon the rest of the day (preferably earlier than later so your not up all nite urinating).

See if you can get to 2.5 gallons a day. Try that for four days with no lifting and then try to give blood.

I could be wrong but Im willing to bet that you are chronically dehydrated before anything else (and hopefully its not anything else or you have to start looking at polycythemia) but most likely you are just not taking in as much water as you think you need to do.

You could test it yourself also after a couple days of superhydration.

Compliments of Massive G below

http://www.cliawaived.com/cf.invent...1405&head=Hgb Pro Meter (1 meter 100 strips)

Ive been using that meter now for over a month. My hemoglobin has been testing out at about 17.8 now. they usually figure that hematocrit is 3x that, so that would correspondt to about 54 HCT. When i went in to give blood my hematorcrit read 59. Not sure why my hematocrit was so high. Seems for me now that my hemoglobin is less than 1/3 of my hematorcrit. Anyone know why this might be? My hemoglobin has been dropping too in the last 6 weeks, down from about 19, but the hematocrit did not change at all. How can this be??