I've donated twice so far, both at BioLife. The first appointment went smoothly, but it took almost 4 hours to complete. That's not too bad considering I received $100 for my first donation. I got sidetracked with work and ended up not taking advantage of the new donor promotion. My mistake, but it probably didn't matter considering what happened next.

A few months later, I decide to try again and make some extra cash. I get there at 7:30 AM. The line is kinda long but not crazy long. It takes about an hour to have my vitals taken. However, the lady tells me I need to see a nurse before I can donate. That takes another 45 minutes. The nurse tells me I gained 10 lbs in the last few months. She tells me I can donate. "Okay..."

I wait to donate (another 45 minutes). About 15 minutes after getting started, the phlebotomist says a line was kinked and they couldn't give me my blood back. They told me I can't donate for another 8-weeks. This was also my first donation of the week, so it was only $40. I'm kind of bummed because I would not have shown up for only $40. The Red Cross has much better snacks and I'm O-. No point in driving to BioLife imo.

I’m planning to try donating blood again, but I’m honestly a little nervous after my last experience.

The last time I donated, they had trouble finding my vein and I ended up with hematomas in both arms. It was pretty painful and made me hesitant to go back.

I know I didn’t hydrate very well yesterday, but today I’m making an effort to do better. I’ve been drinking electrolytes for several hours before my appointment and will keep drinking water too. I’m also thinking about using a warm compress or heating pad on my arm beforehand.

For those of you who are difficult sticks, what has helped the most? Does hydration make a big difference? Are there any other tips I should know before I go?

One other thing I’m curious about: I’ve seen other people say that when they ended up with hematomas in both arms because of unsuccessful sticks, they still received the full compensation. That wasn’t my experience I didn’t receive the full payment after it happened to me. Is that something that varies by donation center, or was my situation handled differently?

The cuff always is so tight because my arm got to much muscle and they don’t ever bother to put the big cuff on me at BioLife. Also I noticed i’m the only person in there that is jacked

I got deferred today at CSL for 2nd blood loss in 2 months.

Can I go to donate at another center ? They deferred me til September 17

Hey all I have a question. One of my local plasma said I was positive for hepatitis b. I went to 2 different doctors and they was both negative. Now I'm on the donor list to not donate. One of the managers told me that they've been getting a lot of false positives lately but can't help me. Is there a way to get myself off the list if I have proof?

I donated today and my protein was 6.1. Last week I was deferred cause I had a 5.9. No idea why my protein is always low. I eat two meals, 300g of chicken breast twice a day with rice on the side. That’s my only source of protein but I get in a total of 120g of protein a day. Is chicken breast not a good source of protein or should I space it out more. Plz help. Not trynna get deferred again

I am really interested in donating plasma as I feel it would be a good way of supplementing income for my family since we have a lot of medical bills, but as much research and reading I've done on people's experiences from this subreddit, I still haven't found the courage to actually take the leap and go... Is anyone else in the same boat/took some time to actually make that first appointment?

I’m 2 donations deep so far.

First appointment was easy. Second appointment things got a little weird.

Aside from accidentally answering one of the questions wrong and had to wait almost an hour for the nurse to reconfirm, I ended up being the very last donor on the floor. Smooth sailing until the saline return, when the needle slipped out of my vein and deposited some saline under my skin instead, because of that the machine threw an error and I ended up not getting roughly 43 mL of my red blood cells back.

I waited about 4 days for my next appointment. During the finger poke I was told my hematocrit was JUST under the threshold. I was told to eat some iron rich food and try again the next day. I told the technician what happened during my previous visit, and she said that shouldn’t change the level.

Rescheduled for the next day (yesterday) and was told the same thing. 2 points under the threshold, have some iron rich foods.

So I rescheduled for today. Hoping that my hematocrit comes up today. But I’m also doubting what the technician told me how there’s no correlation between the RBC loss and my low hematocrit. But I also started my period and I’m wondering if that also may contribute to this.

Either way I’m also hoping this doesn’t ruin my new donor bonus.

Who would have thought trying to make a little extra cash on the side would turn into 12 years of donating, helped pay for a surprise anniversary trip to Jamaica with my wife, and countless other trips to the casino and such
I’ve taken breaks here and there and got 20ish donations at another center while they were open, but boy am I glad the payments went up, when I started it was 20 then 30 per week

Got home from my second donation, fainted in my kitchen 30 minutes later. Thankfully my partner was on the way home and picked me up a Powerade.

What did I do wrong?
Not enough food and water 🥲
One bowl of spaghetti and a liter of water 2 hours before donating was NOT enough, still felt faint after a Powerade and sandwich; didn’t get back to 100% until after dinner.

Y’all they are not joking about drinking water and eating immediately after donating, don’t make my mistake!

Has anyone ever gotten this message from Octopharma? I saw this in my app yesterday. Kinda has me a little worried. Ive been donating there for a few months and all the sudden got that. It says im do for a physical also though. Would the physical cause that message? Or is there maybe an actual issue with my donations?