I feel a little confused as to why more people don't seem to do it. Apparently you can get like $200-300 a week and it seems like there are no serious short term or long term side effects, but I feel like I must be missing something.
I did for a period. It kinda sucks because if they mess something up you don't get paid. Sometimes you have to wait a while and it makes it not as worth the time. The pay generally goes down after your first month promo is over
Still, its worth trying out and was good time for getting some reading done. It really depends how well your center is run
I never had any medical issues or side effects, except that alcohol would hit me like a truck the days I donated
The whole premise of it a is really icky and you are being exploited in a major way. The people working there are also not paid all that well AFAIK. You'll notice that the centers tend to be in low income neighborhoods. And while they say you are "doing a great thing" and helping people with rare diseases, you are really helping them turn huge profits as the specialized medicines they make from the plasma are very expensive for the patients as well.
I had the best time with grifols/biomat. I also tried biolife (decent) and octapharma (bad)
When you're promo is up, you can switch to a different center for their promo but you must wait one week in?between.
I did it back in college but it kinda sucks. I had weird bruises all the time, sometimes I'd get turned away for not having juicy enough veins, sometimes it hurt to get jabbed. Not a fun experience but it got me by.
It also sucks that they're allowed to call it "donating" when these companies primarily sell and export your plasma for profit. It's selling blood to vampires.
If I just get a bruise here and there it wouldn't be a big deal to me, as long as they heal. Just more literal than the usual means by which the vampires feed off of me.
I guess I'm just wondering if there's any way in which it is particularly worse than other forms of exploitation.
in my place bc nobody wants to be transed from my tainted blood or whatever Hitler juniour when drafting the laws
I'm thinking about doing it but mostly because it might cut my microplastics level down and I'll also get paid for it.
Always wondered why those places exist but there's nowhere that will pay you for whole blood. A little bit too on-the-nose?
The plasma centers make medicines from your antibodies and shit. Technically you aren't selling your plasma, and it is a donation, but they are Just compensating you for your time. That's the loophole I guess
Idk why blood banks don't pay except for a $10 amazon gift card or a tshirt here and there. Maybe they just have enough public goodwill and there is still enough altruism left in this world
I think it’s a legality thing, if it weren’t illegal I’m sure there would be places buying the whole blood too.
Plasma has a longer shelf life than whole. A lot of the blood products extracted in America are sold elsewhere in the world so they prioritise the products that are easier and cheaper to ship around.
I’ve done it before but only when really desperate, I don’t really like doing it and I never did it more than like once a month, even though you’re allowed to do 2 times a week
I don’t like the idea of having to sell my bodily fluids because otherwise I couldn’t afford to eat, it made my just rage a little extra hard at how fucked up the whole system is. I guess I can’t say I have many complaints about the actual extraction process, they made it about as painless as you could hope for. You sit there for like an hour scrolling hexbear or whatever while the machine takes your blood out, spins it around to separate out the plasma and puts the rest of it back into you.
most places have a promotional rate that resets every month or so, then after you go for the initial month they rely on you being dependent on them for income. definitely line up 3 spots and rotate them out over time. also, make sure to tell the truth about the frequency you're donating. they all pull those stats from the same database
I'd do it regularly but so much of the time I spent in the centers was just waiting around doing nothing. Even though the process only took an hour or so, you had to wait 2-3 just to sit down in the chair. $80 for 4 hours is still worth it but only just barely since you can only do it twice a week.
It kinda bills itself as a "Quick in and out deal to get some spending money" but it's closer to an entire half-day of waiting/donating and then feeling kinda tired for the rest of it.
My sister did that in undergrad for extra cash and it seemed to mostly work out for her. I cut myself and injured myself enough working as a machinist and factory worker that took too many stupid risks to think being down on bodily fluids pre-injury wasn't a good idea. Then I have mostly made it through grad school and academia with alcoholism, which I think may cause problems or disqualify me, so haven't looked into it recently.
It's illegal in every place i've lived in, that's why.
I used to work right next to a plasma donation place. I had too much bloodwork done as a kid, now the only way I'd consent to having a significant amount of blood taken from me is if a doctor said "if we don't take this blood you are literally going to die." And even then I'd think about it for a bit.
Payment for blood and plasma donation is illegal here, unless you're selling other people's blood products
i had to lie down from the thought alone. i tend to pass out when i bleed or have blood work done, i wish i didn't have this hangup because i could really use the money. also they probably don't want blood with THC in it.
