h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Poor, brave Hoggy

*tucks him in bed*.. Sleep well, hunny..

Fantastic, Moonhogg! Now all we need are some of the others who promised (those who aren't regular donators) to go.

My third son is now over 18 and well built and healthy - I shall suggest he goes, too. I'm not sure if my husband does it, but he has to take various blood pressure medication, so he may not be eligible. For the two oldest it's a source of extra pocket money. They get a few euros for doing their duty as citizens when they donate their blood. The odd thing is their blood groups - can't remember what they are, but we worked out that it's practically genetically impossible for one of them to have the group he does. I'll have to ask again about that.

As I lost a lot of blood on their behalf, I hope that three blood donors in the family will be morally OK.

I talked about blood groups with my friend the other day. She's A, her husband is B, one of her children is 0.
I guess I'll have to reread Mendel's laws of genetic.

That's my arm been drained into a bag. The tea was nice but the biscuit was stale.

(Had to do it in Inverness, cos I forgot when I was in Edinburgh )

Wow, so you actually did it? Fantastic Mind if I give you a ?

I popped over to your space for a visit and found this journal very interesting - I can't donate blood either! It's nice to meet someone else who can't. I feel bad about it, and I try to get people I know who can donate to do so, but they don't seem to keen on it.

I've also tried twice and the second time they asked me not to come back for a while. I have very small veins which are hard to locate and they seem to "shut down" after a few minutes of the needle going in, or so they said. The first time was really painful and she kept fiddling with the needle and moving it around, trying to get blood. My weight, blood pressure and haemoglobin are fine but the blood just didn't come out enough and there's a time limit on how long they can have you attached to get all the blood out apparently. They tried the "drink more" thing but it didn't work either time. My veins are too tiny and weird! And then they just threw away the half-donations!

It's sad we can't donate

Yes, it really is. If we'll have weather like this the next time , I guess I don't even need trying, apparently, I'm back to 'normal' (that is low) blood pressure again. But there's hope, my sister just told me that she's now suffering from high blood pressure for a change, maybe so will I one day, who knows?
To be honest, I'd rather have low BP, though, because it's not dangerous.

Well, I guess that depends how low it is. But, like with your sister perhaps, does it get higher with age? Maybe you'll end up normal in the end. Or you could just eat lots of salt.

I don't eat much salt, guess I never will.
And yes, maybe it's an age thing and I'll change from the hypotonics to the hypertonics in about two years' time.

Btw, I've written about this in the last

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and Moonhogg wrote a poem, which is linked to from the FP:

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I'll take a look

I read it in the newspaper today that it is WORLD BLOOD DONORS DAY today. Is that right?

I don't know, all info I could find is from 14th June 2005.

Ooh, do we get presents?

Argh! This makes me feel like there's a party I'm not invited to. I know there are fairly legitimate reasons why I can't donate but it really does get on my tits.

I just want to do my bit!

I browsed some English websites now and bomdon is right: today is World Blood Donor Day.

I found a link which I'm going to post to my article now.

Hmm, I found this relatively late...

Never donated blood, but have planned to for quite a while, and something always gets in the way.

One question I've not found answered in any of the leaflets or anything (and sorry if it's a dumb question) - can women actually donate at certain times of the month, or is there too much of a risk of anaemia?

Not that I knew of. They'll test the HB anyway (once they checked the blood pressure) - I never got that far, though.

Hmm. Ok, I suppose they'd have mentioned it otherwise...

Maybe I should just give it a try. Though I'm a bit wary, they managed to leave half my arm blue just taking a sample at the hospital last month

I'm O-, too, so probably a good idea to try, at least...

Just be aware that you'll have to sign all sorts of risks - like blue arms etc. I wonder that my GP never makes me sign such a list when taking a blood sample.