Plasma donation, page 1

and I've donated over a gallon of blood. I also worked for a major metropolitan police department for nine years.

First off, selling plasma will not give the PD the ability to plant DNA evidence of you at a crime scene. If you were wounded during a crime, you leak blood, not plasma. Plasma is only gotten after drawn blood is taken through a centrifuge process. The tubing and such used in the "donation" process is all disposed of as biohazard material and is not labeled. Furthermore, the tubing etc. is flushed because they pump saline back into you to make up for the volume of plasma extracted, so the tubing is effectively cleaned before you are disconnected and can leave.

The entire process takes 2-3 hours per donation. The place I sell at allows two donations per week and you can donate every other day. If you donate with one day seperating, let's say Wednesday and Friday, you can't donate until the following Wednesday. If you do Tuesday/Friday, you can donate Monday or later. I try to keep two days between donations to keep good flexibility for the following week.

As far as weakness after donating plasma, I'd have to say not really. There's a 15-30 minute wait after the last blood is reinfused back into you, during that time they pump in the saline and pull out the needle which adds 10 minutes to make sure the puncture site clots properly and doesn't leak all over your clothing. Generally I walk over to 7-11 and get a soda and candy bar afterwards, I have had slight lightheadedness, but it passed very quickly.

The amount of plasma that they extract depends entirely on your body weight. I weigh about 210, and they take around 875ml from me which I think is their max. The cutoff for that amount is around 150 lbs I think. Most women, regardless of weight, have much less extracted and it takes them less time.

The important thing is to have plenty to drink and to eat well before going, allow time for the digestive process to be well underway because your blood pressure, temperature, and pulse have to be at reasonable levels: pulse and temp have to be under 100 or you're deferred.

I have seen people get ill during the process, I don't know if they didn't eat enough or what. I also saw a guy get shut down because the machine knew he was dehydrated and didn't have enough water in him.

Giving blood is different. They extract a full pint from you in one continuous process. Nothing is reinfused back into you, so you are a pint low. Yes, you're a little weak afterwards, and you're advised to eat a good meal and avoid strenuous activity and alcohol for the next 24 hours.

As far as planting donated blood at a crime scene, I don't think it would work. I am not a lawyer or crime scene investigator, but there will be a major difference in the oxygen level between freshly spilled blood and something poured out of a sample phial.

There is also platelet donation which is similar to plasma harvesting, I haven't done this but apparently they hook up both arms to the equipment. But I think it's largely the same, in that blood is extracted, centrifuged to take out the platelets, then the remaining blood is reinfused back into you.

And I have no problem selling plasma as I've been unemployed for almost 2.5 years and it's about the only cash I make. When I was working I was a regular blood donor and plan to be again when I start working.