Interesting Questions to Donate Blood
I donated blood today and they had completely changed their computer and added a bunch of interesting questions.
One of the questions was something like, “Were you a member of the military or a military dependent at any time from 1980-1996?” for which the answer for me was “Yes.” The nurse consulted another flowchart that said not to worry about me because I had not traveled outside the country more than X months. I wonder what that question is all about?!? Maybe they were afriad military personnel stationed overseas would answer “No” to questions about living overseas since the bases are technically U.S. Property. I don’t know.
They also defer for a lot of medications, including heparin, which sort of sucks for me since I clot so easily. We got less than half a bag today before I clotted. :( Being that a lot of heparin is made in the U.K. from animal byproducts, I can see their concern.