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v-ness · 12-29-2009, 09:49 PM

interesting this topic has come up. over the years i have donated about 7 gallons of blood to the local hospital and the Red Cross. i just donated to the RC bloodmobile this july, then got diagnosed with breast cancer in late august so i've always worried what happened with my blood. the Red Cross has called me 3x in the past couple months asking me to donate, and each time i ask them to put me on a Do Not Call list because i have cancer and have no idea when i will ever be able to donate again. maybe when i go to Oncology thursday for my chemo i will pop in to see my old blood bank friends and ask them about cancer and blood donation. the funny thing is, you never see a question about cancer on the huge form you have to fill in when you go to donate blood! Mad Cow Disease, sure. cancer, nope.

i too am an Organ Donor and i should hope that when you are so many years in remission or considered cured that you can certainly still donate your organs. my husband died 3 yrs ago january 14 of advanced esophageal cancer and he was not an organ donor. still, when i got home from the hospital that morning the organ donor bank called to ask me if i would donate his corneas and i said yes. they knew full well he died of cancer and still his corneas now help 2 people see once again.

i would really be interested in the blood issue because way too many people don't bother giving blood and make excuses like 'scared of needles' or 'no time', etc. my bob lived a couple months longer thanks to blood donors. when he was first admitted and diagnosed he had to have 4 pints transfused immediately. we only had 10 more weeks together, but it might have been a lot less than that without life-giving blood.

valerie

12-29-2009, 09:49 PM	#8
v-ness Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: western ma Posts: 280	Re: Blood Bank Donation interesting this topic has come up. over the years i have donated about 7 gallons of blood to the local hospital and the Red Cross. i just donated to the RC bloodmobile this july, then got diagnosed with breast cancer in late august so i've always worried what happened with my blood. the Red Cross has called me 3x in the past couple months asking me to donate, and each time i ask them to put me on a Do Not Call list because i have cancer and have no idea when i will ever be able to donate again. maybe when i go to Oncology thursday for my chemo i will pop in to see my old blood bank friends and ask them about cancer and blood donation. the funny thing is, you never see a question about cancer on the huge form you have to fill in when you go to donate blood! Mad Cow Disease, sure. cancer, nope. i too am an Organ Donor and i should hope that when you are so many years in remission or considered cured that you can certainly still donate your organs. my husband died 3 yrs ago january 14 of advanced esophageal cancer and he was not an organ donor. still, when i got home from the hospital that morning the organ donor bank called to ask me if i would donate his corneas and i said yes. they knew full well he died of cancer and still his corneas now help 2 people see once again. i would really be interested in the blood issue because way too many people don't bother giving blood and make excuses like 'scared of needles' or 'no time', etc. my bob lived a couple months longer thanks to blood donors. when he was first admitted and diagnosed he had to have 4 pints transfused immediately. we only had 10 more weeks together, but it might have been a lot less than that without life-giving blood. valerie __________________ 8/09 - IDC 1.8 cm triple positive, lumpectomy left breast 10/09 began chemo (taxotere & carboplatin) and weekly herceptin. 1/21/10 finished chemo, continued on herceptin every 3 weeks until 10/2010. 2/10 began 7 wks of radiation 6/10 mom dies of primary peritoneal ovarian cancer 8/10 got my last remaining ovary out 10/10 mammogram all clear 3/11 MRI shows 5 'spots' in right breast, largest 1 cm unidentifiable on US needle biopsy proved the largest to be old inflamed cyst -phew! 7/10 switched to Arimidex 8/9 switched to Femara - allergic to arimidex Femara made me lose hair quickly so switched to Aromasin Aromasin made my hair fall out too and the bone pain was too much. back on Tamoxifen 1/2013. blood clot from trains and planes 5/2014 so on coumadin per onco for as long as i am on tamoxifen tamoxifen was supposed to be up with my 5 yrs in may but my boyfriend was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer so i am staying on tamoxifen indefinitely because i want some ammo against BC, given the stress. lost my husband in only 10 wks in 2007 to stage 4 esophageal cancer. cancer's screwing with another man i love 2/2016 - 6yrs in remission, off tamoxifen and off coumadin - yay!