Donating blood here in Australia

[Jordan101]

Before i start moderators if this isn't the right place for this please let me know so i can move it to the right area thankyou.

 

 

Hi all

I wanted to let everyone  know that there is a shortage of blood donations Victoria and Australia wide, because of COVID.

On the 20th November, I went and donated blood for the first time. I spent about 20-45 mins doing questions and talking to a lovely nurse and doing all the blood pressure and so on for a new donor.

She asked if I was talking any medications or drugs and I told her 'yes', I told her that I am transgender.
She was surprised but interested about it all and wanted to learn more, I spent 10 - 20 mins talking about some things but told her that there are youtubers and forums she can read also.  She said all medications were fine to donate and she signed me off.

All up the pain part was alright like a normal blood test but bigger  

I would Highly recommend donating if you can as Australia is short of blood. it would only take a hour out of your day.

With my first experience it was fantastic. I did it with the Australia Red Cross Lifeblood. they have a app and you can book a time.

 

 

Update today - Just found out that ill be doing more donations in the future as i have the rarest type of blood "AB-"  only 1% of our population has this type. lol

[tracy_j]

Here in the Uk they are talking about donation of blood plasma from people who have had covid for treatment of those that have it. It is worthwhile contacting your local health service both here and probably elsewhere if you feel able to help.

 

Tracy

[Jordan101]

19 hours ago, tracy_j said:

Here in the Uk they are talking about donation of blood plasma from people who have had covid for treatment of those that have it. It is worthwhile contacting your local health service both here and probably elsewhere if you feel able to help.

 

Tracy

 

 

Hi Tracy

 

I understand the UK is going through a hard time with covid, with lockdowns and such. Its interesting you say about people donating blood and plasma from people who had covid. Where here in Victoria, Australia we don't allow people who are infected or showing symptoms of coivd to donate as they could pass it onto patients.

I can let you know that Covid will be around for a while and being in massive lockdowns here is Victoria did help but it wont stop it. If they do some lockdown and mask wearing over in the UK that will help as our economy in Victoria is really bad with high unemployment rate and most shops closed due to the lock down. 

 

Our thoughts and preys to the family's and friends that are in the UK are safe and well. we all want this to finish and get back to normal.

 

Jordan

[tracy_j]

Hi Jordan, yes it is bad with the lockdowns. I think the government have been clutching at straws a bit as they fail to cope. I saw an advert last night which brought it home to me a bit that maybe the blood transfusion service is having trouble coping. This was for donation for people suffering sickle cell anaemia. This mainly affects coloured people so they were asking for more specific donors. The request for people who have had covid was for plasma to treat those who are in a bad way with covid, I think, so not really a risk to the general population. The blood service is open but I suspect they are doing stringent checks with normal donations. I heard about your strict lockdown. I wonder how it would be received here. I hope it sorts things down there. I have always wondered though as it only really delays things but at least there seems to be vaccines on the way now.

 

Tracy