I'm not allowed to give blood because once upon a time I lived overseas for 9 months. Lame.

I am part of that 5% that donated regularly but then got rejected because I might be a mad cow, so this is a bit of a hot button issue for me. I wonder what will happen when we have an outbreak of mad cow in this country. Will vegetarians suddenly be the only people qualified to give blood?

Same problem here. I hate giving blood. It scares the stuffing out of me. (Kind of weird for a stuntman, I know. I have pictures on my website of myself on fire, and falling from a 3rd floor fire escape, but needles...ug!) But every 8 weeks, I screwed my courage to the sticking point and went down and let some nice young man or woman stick a needle in my arm. Then, last year, they told me that the 7 months total that I spent living in England, 6 of them back in 1982, disqualified me now. I couldn't decide how I felt about it - I was massively relieved, but also unhappy that I couldn't give blood any more. And also annoyed at myself for being relieved. Still a little conflicted.

Eerie user pic. I like it! You going to be at Pennsic this year?

What exactly do you DO all day? I never read anything about your career life. Granted it may be a good thing that you're not dominated by that career like most of us. Sometimes I look back at journal entries and decide that it's nothign much more than a weekly work log. erf!

Sorry to hear about Pennsic though. Guess you won't be at paladin_of_gaia and my wedding on the battlefield then.

Ok - telling me who works 60+ hours a week of back breaking mind altering labor (for PEANUTS I might add), while trying to plan two wedding ceremonies, buying a house, and doing this all around Pennsic, while also handling family matters and others crisis situations that you don't have TIME for Pennsic is like me bitching to Walter Hudson that I'm concerned about the extra ten pounds I put on over the past six months.

I'm actually still technically qualified to give blood (I listen to the questions reeeealy carefully, had to give it up for 6 months after spending 18 hours on the Yucatan peninsula), but I've been ditching lately because of the 2 hour plus wait times (with an appointment). If there's market pressure to acquire blood, the local red cross isn't feeling it...

I also find it amusingly stupid that they won't define sex on the questionaire. I've decided to interpret somewhat loosely so they can still have my (carefully clean) blood, but it really seems like they're making a mistake by using this questionaire at all. I know men who "have had sex (even once) with another man since 1977" who are substantially more conscious of their HIV status than most heterosexuals. I think more than half the point of this procedure is to convine people care is being taken, as opposed to actually being careful.

The both times I've donated blood I've lied about when I got my most recent piercing. I watched everything go through the autoclave and the piercer unwrap a brand new needle, and then throw it away afterwards. As Olstad mentioned, the "have had sex (even once) with another man since 1977" isn't about making sure the blood supply is safe, it's about making people feel as if the blood supply is safe. The first time I read that question, all guilt I felt about my plan to lie immediately went out the window.