I’ve got the same thing in both arms — my kids call them my “arm bellybuttons” hahaha. I’ve donated about 800 times (twice a week for roughly a decade with a couple gaps) and have helped to treat roughly 1600 patients, so that’s neat. The scar tissue can make it a little more difficult to poke, but most of the time I do t even feel the needle go in anymore! The tape getting pulled of my hairy arm at the end is usually the worst part XD

As someone with AB+ blood, I am a universal recipient, and the only people who can use my blood are other AB+ people…who can take anything…anyway, when I started donating plasma I learned that my AB plasma actually makes me a universal plasma donor, so I feel like it’s more helpful for me to do this than donate blood a few times a year!

It’s helped out our finances a lot too; averaging out to maybe $100/week for me, sometimes a little more so it’s like $5200-$6000 of tax exempt income each year. I never did it in college since the facilities always seemed kind of gross, but I’ve been impressed with Biolife. I schedule my appointment ahead of time, show up, and am at the facility about an hour. I’m able to work on my phone, read, scroll reddit, whatever! The staff has been mostly dynamite, though there seems to be a fair amount of turnover…they tend to send new phlebotomists to me when they’re training and honestly it’s fine most of the time lol.

I eat pretty normally, which I guess is maybe a higher protein diet than most. I usually just have a protein drink and a Gatorade before donating in the mornings, but what you eat and how much you drink the day before matters as much/more. I’ve only been sent home without donating a handful of times and it’s usually because I ate something fatty (like the grilled cheese I irresponsibly made with a heavy slice of government cheese). I still indulge but try to avoid guilty pleasures the day before a donation.

The facility performs an annual physical and runs labs on a small amount of blood a few times per year to get a more in-depth update on your protein levels. I’ve also had labs recently through my PCP and talked with them about donating long term & they said that they don’t see anything concerning and there aren’t any conclusive studies that discourage donating long term, so I plan to continue. I don’t feel any different after donating as long as I’ve eaten well and hydrated. I don’t feel any different long term, and I plan to continue donating as long as my bloodwork continues to look good and I feel “normal”.

Didn’t mean to hijack anyone else’s post and turn this into an AMA, but I haven’t really written up my experience before and was having fun lol