About forty years ago I tried to donate blood and was not successful. For some reason I could not fill the bag in the time allotted and was told my blood clotted too fast for me to be a good donor. So I didn’t try again, until last year at the state fair, when my wife wanted to donate at the Red Cross Blood Mobile and I thought I would not be able to. We stopped at the blood mobile and talked with the people there and I found out that just because I was not successful in giving blood before that does not mean that I would not be able to donate now. So we went in and sure enough, I didn’t have any issue donating the blood at all.

So now I can tell you, if for any reason you believe you would not be a good candidate for donations, please give it a try. That could be the end of the story but a few weeks after that donation I got a call from the Red Cross asking if I would be interested in donating blood platelets. I had never heard of this so it was explained to me that I had a rare blood type and that platelets from my blood could help patients with bleeding problems after a severe accident, under going cancer treatment or during surgery. They also explained that donating platelets takes a little longer than donating blood but there is a critical need for platelets. So I go in once a month, relax in a very comfortable recliner and enjoy a movie on a DVD player, as the antiphrasis machine draws my blood, separates the platelets and gives me my blood back. About the same as giving blood other than it takes a bit longer and you can do it more often.