Self phlebotomy help. Donating blood

[crtx]

pay for it from the doc wouldn't ever attempt this at home imagine passing out in the chair with bloods draining good life.

 

[nullandvoid]

Didn't feel like creating a new thread. This isn't a popular topic, but I've been doing self-phlebotomy for close to 15 years. For starters, Red Cross looks for reasons to not take your donation. If you're honest about AAS, congratulations, you are now on a permanent deferral list, which will take an escalation all the way up to the national director to get removed (this happened to me). Everything just has to be perfect for Red Cross. Your blood pressure has to be great, your hair can't be messy... it's just a real fucking pain dealing with them. Then they spam the ever-living shit out of you, begging for blood, having a record they turned you away the last time. Horseshit organization that has no problem wasting your time or butchering your veins. Other blood banks have popped up recently, but if your hemoglobin is too high (which is an effect of why you're there in the first place), then they will also turn you away. Nowadays, most of the time I do use an alternate, local blood bank, but right now I am on Accutane and can't. My previous set up was using an aquarium dosing pump for peristaltic action, tubing, and a 16g needle. I've really gotten tired of this setup over the years so recently upgraded a number of things, one of the most welcome changes being 21g butterfly needles. However, the reason I'm posting is I want to inform about the availability of this little pump that has just been fantastic. Other peristaltic pumps are hundreds of dollars, and this comes in around $110. It has a stepper motor, is programmable to stop after a certain volume (among other things), is reversible, and has a few other features I'll never use (i.e. it came with a pedal you can connect and start/stop the pump using your foot). You aren't going to be dumping 500ml in three minutes, so don't be like me with unrealistic expectations. Especially with high hematocrit, flow rate is going to have to be around 20-50ml/min. In my ignorance, I had this idea I was going to turbocharge my bloodletting and be done quickly.... nope. The vein can only support so much before collapsing or air starts to creep in to the system... both causing a stall. Once it stalls, the clock starts ticking for the blood clotting in the tubing, and once that happens, you're fucked and are going to have to repeat the whole process with new tubing and needle along with cleaning the pump. Anyway, learn from my mistakes and don't think you're going to be done in under five minutes. Once I get past Accutane, I will probably go back to doing double red donations locally when I can get away with it, but it's good to have an emergency backup plan. Tip: HCT is approximately three times your hemogloblin, so just multiply your hemoglobin (what they measure pre-donation) by three to get your HCT.

Here's the pump.

www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZVCPFVK

 

[xrayphoton13]

Just hydrate properly with water and electrolytes. Chug a ton of water all the way up to the blood draw. Fasting means no food. You're normally dehydrated when you wake up so you need to drink plenty of water before labs. Your results won't be high then and you'll see outside of polycythemia vera, which you don't have, you don't need to donate due to steroids. That's outdated. Donating causes a rebound effect where your hematocrit can go even higher plus you can tank ferritin donating too often. I think donating should only be done if you are trying to help others, not because you think you have an issue with hematocrit on steroids (you don't)