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Donated again just this week. Having had a covid vax booster in the last two months was noted but not a bar to donation.
Seems as though unless a donor has an active ( or maybe recent) covid infection ( true for any infection, really), it doesn't seem either having had covid, or being vaccinated is a detriment to donation. As someone else mentioned, the blood bank, noting your vaccination status, may look for high titer covid antibodies in your plasma, potentially for use as convalescent plasma for those seriously ill with covid.
Though from what I read, the jury is still out as to how high covid antibody production is in response to vaccines, vs antibody production from covid infections.
Yeah, your body replaces platelets quite a bit faster than it does red blood cells, so you can donate more often. And from what you have said before, your platelet count is on the higher side of normal, so you have enough to share with lots of people.
And I know all those people you help out with your platelet donations, those people who need them like the critically injured, burn patients, cancer patients, and yeah, premature babies too would thank you a thousand times over for your generous donations.
I am sure they are grateful and I love donating platelets in memory of my dad anyway.
I just wish that platelets DIDN'T reproduce so quickly because the short term benefit that I get is just that - short term. It drops my platelet count to around 400,000 instead of 450,000 or 460,000 for about a week. Oh well! I have plenty! Come get 'em!
I donated again on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. Had a successful time of it. Four times now in one year.
However, Thursday I woke up with a headache and nausea, and both have persisted (now its Saturday). Nausea is somewhat better though. When I had blood pressure and pulse checked before donating blood, blood pressure was 110/60 and pulse 52. This is fairly normal for me. Today I did some light swimming drills in a pool and practiced some techniques but no real lap swimming today. I got out of the pool and went to the shower and suddenly felt very faint and dizzy and leaned against the wall in the shower until it passed. It was very sudden and then over. At home in the afternoon I took a short nap and then sat up and stood up and again felt extremely woozy. Heart felt like it was racing. My husband has one of those pulse/oxygen meters so I measured mine and oxygen was excellent at 99, but pulse was racing at 99-100 which is VERY unusual for me as mine is typically between 50-60. It has slowed down somewhat now but heart is still pounding in chest. I've been trying to rest and drink more water right now. I just don't understand why my heart rate is all over the place and this persistent nausea and headache. I am not on any new meds or med changes, have not done anything unusual lately, no diet changes. I took a week off intensive exercise though as I have a shoulder strain and pain in shins (nothing new, just worse lately). Hoping maybe it's just a matter of not being used to being back in the pool again after a week off.
Nothing in the blood donation literature about side effects mentions any of this other than immediately after donating blood. So i am thinking it is not related as I never had all this the other three times I donated. Anyone else experience this?
I'm still very glad to donate blood and will do it again in about four months.
I donated again on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. Had a successful time of it. Four times now in one year.
However, Thursday I woke up with a headache and nausea, and both have persisted (now its Saturday). Nausea is somewhat better though. When I had blood pressure and pulse checked before donating blood, blood pressure was 110/60 and pulse 52. This is fairly normal for me. Today I did some light swimming drills in a pool and practiced some techniques but no real lap swimming today. I got out of the pool and went to the shower and suddenly felt very faint and dizzy and leaned against the wall in the shower until it passed. It was very sudden and then over. At home in the afternoon I took a short nap and then sat up and stood up and again felt extremely woozy. Heart felt like it was racing. My husband has one of those pulse/oxygen meters so I measured mine and oxygen was excellent at 99, but pulse was racing at 99-100 which is VERY unusual for me as mine is typically between 50-60. It has slowed down somewhat now but heart is still pounding in chest. I've been trying to rest and drink more water right now. I just don't understand why my heart rate is all over the place and this persistent nausea and headache. I am not on any new meds or med changes, have not done anything unusual lately, no diet changes. I took a week off intensive exercise though as I have a shoulder strain and pain in shins (nothing new, just worse lately). Hoping maybe it's just a matter of not being used to being back in the pool again after a week off.
Nothing in the blood donation literature about side effects mentions any of this other than immediately after donating blood. So i am thinking it is not related as I never had all this the other three times I donated. Anyone else experience this?
I'm still very glad to donate blood and will do it again in about four months.
Possibly a loss of too much iron from the blood donation, especially if your iron was on the low side. It can cause you to be faint and dizzy, and also the racing heart and/or palpitations. There should be something about this in the literature. 4x a year might be too frequent for you.
Possibly a loss of too much iron from the blood donation, especially if your iron was on the low side. It can cause you to be faint and dizzy, and also the racing heart and/or palpitations. There should be something about this in the literature. 4x a year might be too frequent for you.
Thanks! I am thinking I will wait at least six months until my next donation this time. My hemoglobin actually tested 15.1 this time and it's concerning me because it is going up each time. The first time it was 13.7, then next two times in 14 range, now 15. Not sure what that means if anything. I have had several full iron panels because I was borderline anemic in 2016 (I was a vegan then, not anymore). I had another full panel in 2018 with marked improvement in ferritin from 17 as a vegan to 65 eating some fish, eggs, dairy PLUS all the plant foods I was already eating. I think there was one number that was still slightly off, can't remember if it was iron saturation or some other number but they said that number didn't mean anything. I am on the small side (5.5.5" 112 lbs) but have some muscle mass from lots of exercise.
I am feeling better now compared to last week. Heart rate is back to lower and no more dizzy spells since Saturday thankfully! I do have an appointment with a doctor in mid December so I might bring this up with her too. Will post again if I find anything new out.
Update:
I went to my doctor and had a bunch of tests done yesterday due to continuing heart palpatations, dizzy spells, trouble concentrating, fatigue, joint and muscle pain. As it turns out ferritin was only 10 and hemoglobin 12, so borderline low. I am also hypothyroid as TSH was 5.93 (I take Synthroid for longstanding hypothyroidism). So that could very well explain all my symptoms. I am definitely taking a break from donating blood for a long time, maybe a year, and working on getting my iron restored and hormones balanced. Right now I feel absolutely horrid.
Does anyone here take iron supplements? I was taking one that is only 27mg but now that I read the requirements for iron deficiency this seems like a drop in the bucket. Curious what others take for iron supplement. This problem is new to me as I have never had to take iron as a supplement before.
Update:
I went to my doctor and had a bunch of tests done yesterday due to continuing heart palpatations, dizzy spells, trouble concentrating, fatigue, joint and muscle pain. As it turns out ferritin was only 10 and hemoglobin 12, so borderline low. I am also hypothyroid as TSH was 5.93 (I take Synthroid for longstanding hypothyroidism). So that could very well explain all my symptoms. I am definitely taking a break from donating blood for a long time, maybe a year, and working on getting my iron restored and hormones balanced. Right now I feel absolutely horrid.
Does anyone here take iron supplements? I was taking one that is only 27mg but now that I read the requirements for iron deficiency this seems like a drop in the bucket. Curious what others take for iron supplement. This problem is new to me as I have never had to take iron as a supplement before.
The blood center once told me my iron was low and they would not let me donate that day so I took an over the counter iron pill until my next donation attempt. Beware iron supplements cause constipation. My friend recommends "Slow Fe", it's supposed to be gentle on your digestive system. Note that I have never taken this. https://www.target.com/p/slow-fe-slo...E&gclsrc=aw.ds
The blood center once told me my iron was low and they would not let me donate that day so I took an over the counter iron pill until my next donation attempt. Beware iron supplements cause constipation. My friend recommends "Slow Fe", it's supposed to be gentle on your digestive system. Note that I have never taken this. https://www.target.com/p/slow-fe-slo...E&gclsrc=aw.ds
Thank you so much! I will look for this tomorrow when I pick up some supplements!
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