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Just went to CSL after 7months and they told me theres no new donor fee anymore and everybody gets paid return donor fees. The 6 month trick doesnt work anymore. Anybody else?

What do y’all eat before (& after) you go to give plasma? Also, how many hours before you go do you eat?

Considering this to pay for a sudden expense. Thanks!

So, I work in the medical field and am a huge proponent of staying up to date with my vaccines as I have a rather weak immune system. A cold is never just a cold, the flu is never just the flu.

On a random day at work I check to see if I'm due for any, and Hep B pops up. Cool. Stab me. (You may already know where I'm going with this.)

One day later, I have COMPLETELY forgotten. I go to Octapharma for the second time ever to get my friend a referral bonus. Donation goes smoothly.

Two weeks later, I go to CSL Plasma, my main donation center, and try to do my questionnaire - not eligible. Weird. I check Octapharma App. Not eligible. Really weird.

In person, CSL tells me I've been reported to the NDDR. I insist my last donation went smoothly and there must've been a mistake.

As I'm driving to Octapharma to clear this all up, I think back to that donation and have a sudden thought to check whether I'd been vaccinated before or after my last donation - and of course, it was the day before. Fml.

TLDR: I forgot to disclose I'd recieved my Hep B vaccine the day before a donation, which triggered a false positive. I am now deferred from all donation for life at 24, which sucks given I'm a registered organ and stem cell donor.

I gave Octapharma my full vaccination records and asked to escalate to corporate to at least get me removed from the NDDR, but they insist they can't modify the report and NDDR insists only the donation center that reported me can modify the report. Octapharma also insist they don't take outside test results and can't test me to prove a negative. Complete stalemate. No appeal process.

QUESTION:

Has anyone ever experienced this or have an idea of how to proceed? Really screwed myself over here and it seems like none of the staff know how to proceed either.

I did my first 14 donations with no alarms, no side effects, everything was going fine. I usually go Monday and Friday.

Then last Monday a baby phlebotomist couldn’t get a flash when she tried sticking me, then said she couldn’t find a vein on my other arm. (I have had both of my arms stuck with no problems multiple times). Wrapped me up and said I got my money and I was free to come try again next time.

So I went again Friday. Got stuck by someone who had more experience. Halfway through I started getting low flow and high pressure alarms. They disconnected we early and returned my RBCs. Wrapped me up, paid me. Said I could come back Monday.

So today (Monday) I go in and have to see medical. Nurse tells me it seems I had some issues last week and if it happens again they will have to defer me. Gives me a sheet of paper with all the basic tips on plasma donation.

So I get in line for the floor hoping nothing bad happens today. They hook me up and everything goes great. No alarms, done in less than 30 minutes.

I don’t feel like last week was my fault. I feel like I was a practice mannequin for a baby phlebotomist and had bad needle placement. I do everything I’m supposed to do to prepare for donating, and I had a great record going.

My questions are, was this warning just a paper trail to show they talked to me about the issues? If they look at how many successful, no issue donations I’ve had, do they care? Or are we all just a few bad sticks away from being deferred?

I hope I pass my protein and hematocrit checks!

I had a terrible experience today at Octopharma. The center I go to normally opens at 9AM. I leave the house at 6:30AM just so I can get on public transit so I can get there by 7:45-ish to beat the long lines. Very shortly before 9, the manager of the center comes out and says they're opening at 10AM due to a staffing issue. Everyone hates this. People in the line were saying this happened the last time they were here. The staff filter in well into 9 and people are told by the manager that they're waiting on one more employee to come in in X amount of minutes which passes by quickly.

But here's the thing, the line outside is getting super long and unwieldly. I like to mind my business, but there were people out here literally smoking and sharing weed, sharing alcohol, and generally just acting wild. Having a lot of very loud, very TMI conversations as well. There's a trans person who works there, people normally are assholes about this but they were particularly bad on this day.

There was a guy who dropped down his bag right before my place in line very shortly before it was supposed to open and honestly, I was confused by this and didn't react, largely because I couldn't recognize if this was a guy who was there earlier that had walked off. People are very weird about lines at this place. The guy was attempting to cut, and the people around me were joking about this and talking about it as if it were some secret. He was cool with the people who were in front of the line.

He moved his bag and I move up to take space, but I've noticed what people will do is wait until the door is open and rush in in that moment to cut in front of people. So I was bracing myself for the moment where I may have to call this person out for this, but I realize that if I'd done that I'd wind up so heated that I wouldn't even feel comfortable coming in and having to wait 30 minutes to be seen, then spend an hour or so on the machine, so I just left. It was like 10:19AM and the center still hadn't opened.

Just in general, I hate this. I just want to donate my plasma and go home. I don't want to have to think about whether I have to confront some dude with a bunch of neck tattoos about a spot in line for a $60 donation at 10:19AM. I think I'm going to switch centers because these kinds of experiences are becoming more common where I'm at.

Are these kind of experiences (e.g. the general unwieldiness of the lines prior to opening), normal at plasma donation spots?

It's a large bottle and I know it may not be perfect but ive been here twice and everybody's plasma is around this color.

Is this actually a safe color? Im worried that too much blood is getting damaged

Hey guys.

Ive donated plasma 10 times. Last month I went in for my 11th donation. It was a long day at work beforhand and drank a couple cups of coffee (I know you arent supposed to). Naturally I was wired and failed both the BP and heartrate test.

Ever since then, despite no caffeine, breathing exercises and a calm mindset, the moment they strap that BP band around my arm my anxiety spikes because im scared to fail again. Ive now been deferred twice and its embarrassing. The attitude from the staff each time also felt a little rude, which makes me even more self conscious.

At this point im just going to give up. It was awesome to make a little extra cash every week but I just cant keep wasting my time to fail again.

I was hoping some of you have had similar experiences you could shed some light on and possibly some helpful advice. Ive tried the space out, read something on the wall, controlled breathing strategies, but the anxiety persists.

Thank you!

I donated plasma seven times at BioLife with no issues, other than feeling a little off one day for an hour or so, which happens.

Then I decided to go to CSL since they had a great deal going for first-timers. It was two weeks after I’d given my last BioLife donation so well past the two day period. I ate a good breakfast and drank a full bottle of water with sugar free liquid IV beforehand as per usual. I passed my physical and the tech checking me in said my weight was right on the cusp so he bumped me up to the next level whatever that means. The donation went fine and I felt normal I went home and ate lunch and all was well. Until it wasn’t. I started getting super dizzy and light headed. My heart started beating super fast and I had an awful urge to go to the bathroom (sorry for the TMI). I called my nurse friend and she said to check my BP (I don’t have high BP or take any meds). My BP dropped to 89/55 and my heart rate was 125, which is about 70 beats above my normal rate. My jaw hurt and my chest ached. Then my BP escalated to 175/90 and I got sent to the ER. It was terrifying. My EKG was abnormal but not catastrophic and all the tests came back fine (other than my RBC count which was high). The ER doc and my PCP were at a loss as to what happened.

Is this something that happens when they take too much plasma? And is this a sign that I need to never donate again? I really need the extra money but I also never want to feel that way again.

I recently went to CSL to donate plasma. I passed everything and did my first donation. They were worried about my veins but tried and it worked. Toward the end. Maybe 40 minutes in I guess my small vein stopped working and I was lightheaded anyway so we stopped. I had barely any bruise. Seriously I get worse bruises from my normal doctor’s office blood draws.

Now I go back a week later, I have to do a vein check. The phlebotomist barely looks at me doesn’t tie the band on all that tight and says yeah I can’t stick you today. She asked me how much water I had to drink. I’ve had about 96 ounces of water. I’m 135 pound girl so that’s plenty with a packet of LMNT about an hour before. Yesterday I probably had 72 ounces of water. So her advice to me was drink 2 to 3 electrolyte packets the day before and the day of. That’s a ridiculously high amount of sodium so no, I will not be following that insane advice.

Any tips from anyone who also has small veins I’m thinking about getting some of those hot hands packs to keep my veins warm because the centers are extremely cold and I’m a person that is always cold. But I don’t know what else to do because it’s extremely frustrating and I’m missing out on the new toner bonus because they won’t even try to stick me the last time they thought they couldn’t and it worked.

Been 110 the last couple of weeks since i started again, now its back to 90.

Did it drop for anyone else again? $20 is a pretty big drop from 110 and with the holidays coming up if the pay is going to be like this, it definitely wont be worth it.

I’ve only been once. I know my veins are crappy in my right arm and had a bruise on my left from the donation. They said come back when the bruise healed. I went online to make an appointment and it says I’m deferred. I’m an anxious person and of course I’m thinking the worst… anyone else have this happen?

I’ve always donated BioLife. Payments have been crap lately, so I switched octapharma. Right before I switched I had a failed SPE. Test with biolife. So I donated one day octa the next day I went to BioLife to do my SPE TEST only. Was told that was OK to do

Cut to today, I had to go back and do another SPE test because I failed. There there was a notice on my account that I tried to donate three times in a week

I never did and never have but I think when I did the SPE they entered it wrong, so it made it looked like I was trying to donate 3 days in a row.

The man that was helping me took me into the back office, made me feel like a criminal. And told me that that’s gonna be on my account forever, and if I do it one more time, I’ll get life deferrence from BioLife.

It’s just frustrating when you don’t do anything wrong and then you get in trouble for it

EDIT
I want to edit that this post. It’s not about passing the SPE test. I’m not new to this. I do realize that going the day after has a lower chance of passing
The post is about having gotten in trouble for trying to donate 3 days in a week when I clearly didn’t

I went to Biolife today as a new donor. I passed screening but failed my physical, but I can come back any day. However, my Biolife is closed on Mondays so I want to try CSL or Octapharma tomorrow instead of waiting till Tuesday. Will it look like I'm trying to donate too soon in CDCS?

I would just skip a day but I need gas money desperately... I will if I have to obviously but I'd rather not.

Other option.... I used to donate at Grifols about 100 miles away. I'm going there tomorrow (which is why I need gas) will I show up on their CDCS even though it's a different DRA?

Again, I'm NOT trying to donate more than allowed, just don't want to be denied based on a technicality.

So yesterday I donated to grifols plasma for 75$.

Before I donated they issued me a new card because I haven’t donated with them since January and since then i didn’t really use the previous card anymore and once I completed my donation I tried registering the card.

I entered my last name and the PID AND 3 digit number on the back and it keeps saying wrong info or card isn’t active.

And when I tried linking the card to cashapp or PayPal it says bank declined because card isn’t active. And when I tried to buy something it declined.

I’m kind of lost and I’m suspecting something might gotten effed up because last time I checked the cars should be active by the time my donation session is done

Mine is coming up in the next couple weeks and I’m curious, I wanna time my propanol accordingly!

All of my 100+ plasma donations were at the main Grifols in Edmonton. They were very nice people and while they would vary with how strictly they enforced the rules they never ignored the loud warning sounds from machines.

The Canada-wide supension of operations appears to be related to the clinic in Winnipeg. I know they had two deaths of donors. There have been no public allegations, or lawsuits that the deaths were due to inappropriate behaviour by staff. I have seen anonymous allegations they were ignoring warning sounds, but no one went on the record with that.

I was donating to bring in a little extra cash. I'm starting a new job on Monday that puts me in a position where I would have quit donating if operations hadn't been suspended. So I started thinking of Grifols as my final donation would have been sometime this past week.

There were many regular donors who definitely seemd dependent on the compensation. I left my last appointment because an hour after the appointment time they still hadn't even called me in to screen. People who are willing to wait that long to donate must really need the money.

So does it depend on how much water I have to how many milliliters I give? The last few times they said I'm in the middle group of donating. I've never been in the middle group before.

I was just told kedplasma won't be doing referral bonuses this month. Can anyone corroborate that? Every other employee said I should get one except the guy it took 45 minutes to get ahold of. Seems fishy

I tried to donate plasma for the first time in my whole 45 years of life and I got rejected because my resting heart rate was too high. The first time it was 125 beats per minute, then they waited 5 minutes and it was 112 BPM.

The requirement is BPM has to be between 50 BPM and 100 BPM.

I need to try again tomorrow (Saturday) morning, but I need suggestions on how to get my BPM lower .... to 100 max.

ALL my other numbers were fine, it's just my resting heart rate thats too high.

And its high because I am nervous about a 17 gauge needle stuck in my arm and remaining there for 45 minutes.

For the most part, needles don't bother me... I give myself injections every 3 months in my hip as well as using auto-injector for my migraines.

But yesterday was the first time I ever walked into a plasma center and as you can see represented in my heart rate... the place make me nervous.

Any suggestions on how to lower my resting heart rate temporarily enough to get past the screening so I can donate?

EDIT on Saturday, October 17:

I cant believe this!

In summary.. At BioLife yesterday (Oct 16) my HCT level was 47% which passes, but my heart rate was 125 and then 110 bpm which failed me

Today my heart rate is 84 bpm which passes, but my HCT is 55% and 54% is the max it can be. So, I was denied again!

I want to thank ALL of y'all for your tips and suggestions on how to lower my heart rate, it worked!

Any suggestions on how to lower my HCT? 🤦🏼‍♀️😬

Someone has hacked my donating card from Octapharma Plasma. Now I barely have any money left on it. What do I do?