Blood Letting Blues or a Crisis in Self-Esteem Management

After a short physical examination, the donor is taken into the donation room and sits in a chair next to the machine. The technician cleans one or both arms with iodine, or other disinfectant, and inserts the catheter into a vein in the arm. With some procedures both arms are used, one to draw blood and the other to return it. The process takes about one to two hours while blood is pulled into the machine, mixed with an anticoagulant such as sodium citrate spun around, and returned to the donor. "Double needle" procedures using both arms tend to be shorter since the blood is drawn and returned through different catheters, with "single needle" procedures a set volume is drawn and processed in the first part of the cycle and returned in the second part. The donor's blood is pulled into the machine and returned about 6-8 times.

(If your donation site is using the single needle method, your veins may not be able to handle the increased activity in a single vein. Look for a donation site that uses the double needle procedure. Here's a list of U.S. blood donation agencies by state. There are several listed for New York which you can investigate as an alternative donation site.)

Side effects of the donation of platelets generally fall into three categories: blood pressure changes, problems with vein access, and effects of the returned anticoagulant. Blood pressure changes can sometimes cause nausea, fatigue, and dizziness. Venous access problems can cause bruising, referred to as a hematoma. While donating, the lips may begin to tingle or there may be a metallic taste; a supply of calcium antacid tablets is usually kept close by because the anticoagulant works by binding to the calcium in the blood. Since calcium is used in the operation of the nervous system, nerve-ending-dense areas (such as the lips) are susceptible to the tingling. The donation process can also cause more serious problems such as fainting, seizures, and nerve irritation.[citation needed] These problems are extremely rare, but apheresis donors are typically not allowed to sleep during the long donation process so that they can be monitored.[citation needed]

Vein scarring

Repeated platelet donations at short intervals will cause the venipuncture site to scar. While cosmetically it is virtually invisible, the scarring also occurs on the vein itself, making it harder to insert a needle on future occasions. Anecdotal reports have said that rubbing Vitamin E oil (or the insides of a Vitamin E capsule) on the venipuncture site may reduce scarring.[citation needed]

It may be necessary for the donor to warn anybody who needs to draw blood from a scarred site that the vein may be somewhat tougher than normal. Failure to do so may result in the tech thinking they have missed the vein, not realizing that the vein simply may take a little more pressure to stick.[citation needed]

I'd like you to find out more, Tsar. Stop with the low self esteem thing.

If this is their website, it looks like a great find. I've added it to my list of places to see should I ever visit New York.
Was the food as good as they make it sound on their menus?
What did you all have?

http://www.lasagnarestaurant.com/

I'd like you to find out more, Tsar. Stop with the low self esteem thing.

What's that phrase about zebras and their respective stripes?
Or is the saying about dalmatians and their respective spots?

Wiki -
Has that doctor had a few hundred sticks himself in a few years, never mind ten years??
I'm not complaining. I think my own scarring - not all that bad - has diminished, and it was voluntary anyway. But I didn't deal with large gauge needles most of the time.

I was an early tech at a major lab, not bragging, just circumstances. Taking blood was not my role, most of the time.
Scarring has to do with trauma, mostly, which can point to the techs..





Vein rotation? Give me a break.

ossobuco wrote:

I'd like you to find out more, Tsar. Stop with the low self esteem thing.

tsarstepan wrote:

What's that phrase about zebras and their respective stripes?
Or is the saying about dalmatians and their respective spots?

I invented a zebra frase, to wit:
" a zebra has more than one stripe " meaning that a man has more
than one trait, or characteristic, or ability from which he can choose
as to how to address a situation.

I have yet to copyright it.


David