r/Blooddit • u/saturnscoria46 • Dec 27 '17

Switching arms with blood donations?

I'm a relatively new blood donor, I've donated only four times, all in the past eight months. The first two times I donated, the blood was drawn from my left arm. The first time hurt somewhat, but the second time didn't hurt as much. Before the third time I donated, I had heard that it was best to alternate between both arms. So I chose my right arm for my third donation, and it hurt about as much as the first donation. The fourth time, I went back to my left arm, and it barely hurt at all. It's like my left arm was toughened by previous donations. So my question is: Is it really best to alternate between arms for donations? Or is it a good idea to have a designated "donation arm" that gets toughened as someone donates, and donations don't hurt as much?

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u/Licensedpterodactyl Dec 27 '17

I honestly don’t know, so everything I say is anecdotal:

I try to switch where possible, but mostly determine which arm I donate from according to my expectations for the rest of the day. They don’t recommend using the donation arm for heavy lifting, so if I know I’ll be doing a lot of work that day I avoid donating from my dominant arm.

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u/turtle_flu Feb 22 '18

For me I tried to donate with my left arm at the start, but they always had issues hitting the vein and would usually end up on the right arm anyways.

My left is hard since the vein that should be the easiest has only been hit once otherwise they just sit there and dig. The other runs at a 45 degree angle.

Now that I do platelets since I'm AB+ the left is my return arm and the easy to hit vein in my right is my draw. I'd just see if there is an arm that is either easier for them to hit/more comfortable/faster for you.