Donating Blood

Hi All,

I had always been a regular blood donor up until my cancer dx. I have gotten conflicting information regarding donating after treatment (I live in NY). I went to a blood center today since it is a year since I finished my Herceptin and they turned me down. They say I have to wait another year. Just curious as to others experience.

Susan

I live in Delaware and the blood bank here told me no donating until 5 years after treatment.

I have mets. I was told that I can never donate again. I am still trying to find out if I can donate my organs - I doubt anyone will want them though. I thought maybe I could donate my corneas, but I have heard of people getting mets to the eyes (I don't know details). Anyone?

[Patty H]

I used to be on an organ donor list but I was afraid if a cancer cell was in any of my organs that I would give someone cancer. So I took my name on the list. Patty H

Hi SusanAnne,

Earlier this summer, a good friend of mine recently had a job interview with an interesting company that deals with dead bodies for organ donations. The staffer told my friend that they typically accepts only T-W-O P-E-R-C-E-N-T of the bodies they get for organ transplants!!! In other words, the accepted bodies usually come from "incidential traumas" like car accidents -- definitely NOT from illnesses, i.e. diabetes.

BTW, my friend was applying for a packaging engineer position, so obviously this company "packs" and "carries" dead bodies as well as "ships" organ transplants. Also, occording to the interview in which my friend had learned a LOT, the company is more busy than we could ever imagine.... Just a lot of body traffic... I told my friend that I couldn't just fathom the concept of such heavy traffic, especially the fact of "disposing" 98% of dead bodies! :-(

[StephN]

Interesting side note as another aspect of dealing with our disease.
I had to renew my driver's license this year and I also took myself off the organ doner list. The man doing the renewal told me that many cancer as well as patients with other diseases do the same. Mainly since I have had some major mets to deal with.

Jojo -
I can't believe that the company you are referring to actually GETS all the bodies that are being donated. I think there is a national bank of information and often only the organ needed gets transported. I know in the case of a heart they have a very limited time to get it to whoever will be having it put in.
Not something we want to think and know more about in any given day, but a good point was raised.

I understand your frustration with organ donation as we want to help others. However, with this disease I would not even think about donating my blood or organs for fear of giving someone else think terrible disease. I personally would not want any blood or organs from a person if I knew they had ever had cancer whether it be today or 25 years. That is just me and its only my opinion and feelings on this. Each one had to do what they feel is right for them. Hugs, Sandy

About a month ago a friend of mine researched blood donation very thoroughly. You can read that discussion online at the John's Hopkins Ask the Expert website... okay, I'll see if I can stick that in the right spot here... I think it was under the Chemotherapy category but I'm not sure...

Johns Hopkins Breast Cancer Ask the Expert



A.A.

[StephN]

Hi Alaska -
How are you these days??
I tried to search within the Johns Hopkins site you posted, but got nothing. I tried on the home page and within the category of Chemotherapy. It would take too long to read through all the questions right now!
I put in both "organ donar" and "give blood."

Hi Steph, I'm doing good, thanks (if you can call taking too much work on good, that is.) I appreciate your comment, and my apologies to all -- time goes by faster than I think it does and the post on the Johns Hopkins was back a lot farther in the files there than I would have thought it would be. The answer is so detailed that it is important to read it all. Here it is, courtesy of another bc survivors determined efforts, copied for you all:

Update on the Blood donation question: I did contact the National Red Cross office, and pose the question of whether or not having chemotherapy permanently defers us from giving blood. Apparently, the criteria has recently changed, and the internet has not caught up with the recent changes. The person I communicated with at Red Cross did say that some local blood banks do have their own criteria, but that Red Cross has the same criteria across the board for donating blood, but it has very recently changed. I wanted to post again, because I wanted you and your readers to have the accurate, updated, criteria and not have my recent question and info confuse or discourage anyone. Thank you again for your time. This is a paste of the email correspondence that I had with Red Cross:

the following criteria is in effect for all of the American Red Cross blood donation centers. Other local blood banks may indeed follow their own guidelines for eligibility. All types of cancers are acceptable after treatment has been completed greater than five years and the donor has remained cancer-free with no recurrence for five years or more – EXCEPT: leukemia, lymphoma, Kaposi’s sarcoma, mycosis fungoides, and Hodgkin’s disease, these conditions would result in permanent deferral from blood donation. Additionally, in-situ cancers and non-melanoma skin cancers treated and healed with no further treatment required are acceptable. I hope this information clears up any confusion you may have had about your current eligibility. If however you have been deferred in the past for a cancer history you may want to call the region to determine if your record needs to be reviewed in light of this new information and the change in criteria.

I share the same feelings, here in Wisconsin you need to wait 5 years. I gave when ever I could. Take care, MaryAnn

[StephN]

Guess the post from Alaksa means that those of us whose BC has recurred or metastesized are permanently disqualified from donating either blood or organs. That was my intuition on the subject.
Case closed.