I give blood every 8 weeks, but plasma takes too long. I did it once back in college. The pain was no big deal to me as needles don't bother me at all. I just don't have 4 hours to give away to donate. They know me well enough at the Blood Center I go to that I am in and out in about 35 min.
I don't know what they call it, but i do the thing where they suck out two pints of blood, run it through a machine to separate it, and put part back in. It takes about an hour. I do it every 16 weeks.
Pretty sure that's plasmapharesis. It is also used to treat patients with basically a "superdose" of their own plasma since it only makes up 50% of the actual blood. Plasma itself is 90% water and the remaining 10% is all the proteins and good stuff.
Plasma is valuable for lots of reasons. Plasma moves the blood cells around the body, like a delivery service. It also collects waste for processing. Plasma flows constantly, and the components of plasma are constantly being renewed. In addition to providing nutrition and waste cleanup, blood plasma also harbors immune system cells which attack infections in the body, and it is used to deliver hormones and clotting factors to areas where they are needed. Plasma can keep for up to 10 years and plasma can also be packaged in dried form for reconstitution, a technique which was developed for military applications. For hemophiliacs, packages of plasma combining clotting products from hundreds or thousands of donors are used to compensate for the clotting factors that the hemophiliac lacks. Plasma also regenerates within 48 hours. So it's a little more than the time and pain associated with the process. The collection entities also make a difference as the Red Cross is THE entity for collecting blood but plasma collection is done privately. Pray you never need one of these.... It goes directly into the hip bone to get to the marrow. It hurts. I promise. They don't use anesthesia and bones can't be anesthetized.
I meant that my particular type of plasma was more coveted. I think that it was someone working in a plasma center in the Lafayette area that told me people of Cajun descent have really good plasma for some reason. Anyone heard this before?
Never heard of certain bloodlines being paid more, but people with high antibodies to tetanus and hep b will make more.
On an episode of All in the Family when Archie Bunker finds out that he is getting a blood transfusion from a black person he says it might give him a little more pep in the bedroom
