Donating blood

[pne]

I went and donated blood again yesterday.

Nothing spectacular, except that the nurse who took a drop of blood from my fingertip to test my haematocrit was rather cute, and the doctor took quite a while to show up. Oh, and the nurse who actually took the blood seemed rather hard-of-hearing; she "ignored" not just me but also another nurse when she wasn't expecting to be addressed.

Perhaps I should make a userpic for donating; I'm planning to go again in June, and possible also in August and/or October (which I got tentative dates for, at least a calendar week, though the exact days and the venue are still TBD).

Comments

[pne.livejournal.com]

If I had visited my relatives more often, I would have been banned, too, for spending more than six months (cumulative) in England between 1980 and 1995 (or something like that).

Yeah.

Though the "Africa south of the Sahara" (is that what it was for you? that's what was on my questionnaire) is presumably for AIDS? I thought you could detect HIV antibodies after "x" number of months, so why would they give you a lifelong ban for having lived there, rather than, say, a year-long one?

[crucially.livejournal.com]

Lesotho

[pne.livejournal.com]

Ah, sorry for being unclear.

I was wondering whether they disqualified you for having lived in "Africa" or having lived in "Africa south of the Sahara" -- i.e. whether the criteria your local unit uses were the same as the ones here, or broader.

[crucially.livejournal.com]

Not sure, I've just been told to not bother.

Both in Sweden and in the US

[volantwish]

In the US, they ask about whether you've been to Africa at all. I don't know if they narrow it down further in interview if you check "yes."