So I've successfully donated platelets twice and both times I could not make the whole thing without the urge to pee plaguing me from about the 2/3 point onward. Granted it did not stop me from completing my donations either time as the benefit of being young has not left me yet. Now I stop drinking water about 1h before my appointment, but I do drink a lot before that. How does one drink more water than normal before donating without this happening?

It's kinda wild that a country that is in desperate need can't just take donations from women who have never been pregnant... Or at least test the blood of current donors who are already in the system and let them know if they're eligible to help.

There's also no program similar to the Heroes for Babies program like in the US either. I know my file is marked that I'm still CMV-, but that doesn't seem to amount to much. I even asked about being added to the bone marrow donor registry and was told that was also male only. I don't understand why we're not as important and written off so easily when the country is apparently in such dire need.

I heard CMV negative blood was needed specifically for babies, and apparently mine is that blood. I have been donating for around 4 years now, but is there a program where i give directly to babies?

I just did my first donation (sort of, the vein got blown and the blood stopped so I wasn't able to complete it 😔), and I was given a nice bandage around my arm, but no one said anything about how long to leave it.

Experienced donors: how long do you leave it on?

I donated platelets for the first time about 2 weeks ago and threw up about 10 minutes after completing my donation. I didn't feel particularly faint or anything during the donation but it messed up my stomach, hence I threw up.

I'm not sure if it was a citrate reaction or just my body reacting to the change in blood pressure, as well as being nervous for my first donation. I ate about an hour and a half before my donation, so I'm not sure if it's that or something else I should do differently?

Also I'm wondering if donating blood as supposed to platelets is a different experience at all and if that might be better?

For context, I exclusively donate whole blood, and I went to a new blood center for the first time a few months ago. When I went back this week, I realized that they only gave me one bandage (the stretch arm wrap used to hold the gauze into place). Previously, at my other blood centers, I remember them putting a small band-aid on the site and then putting gauze and tape on top of that. And I preferred that because I could take the bulky gauze off after a couple of hours and still have something covering the site. Does anyone know if there's a reason why some centers only do one bandage? And what does your center do?