Blood Donation

Welcome to The Fast Diet › The official Fast forums › Body › General health ›
Blood Donation

Start a new topic in General health • Reply

This topic contains 7 replies, has 4 voices, and was last updated by  snedger 11 years ago.

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

  • ghostgirl

    8:32 pm

    20 Nov 13

    Permalink

    Have a scheduled blood donation next week for the day after my scheduled fast day. Am thinking that it may be best to move my fast day forward so that I have a day back on full food loading before the donation. (It will be week two, fast day 3 for me next week).

    How have people coped with fasting and blood donations?

    Nika

    2:39 am

    21 Nov 13

    Permalink

    I haven’t combined them yet, but I have donated blood and fasted (just not at the same time). But what you say is the best idea I think, so

    fast day -> normal day -> normal day + blood donation -> normal day.

    So you’d have to throw your fast days around a bit, but you really want to give your body enough fuel around the donation to repair itself. I once didn’t and had to break off the donation because I felt faint, nauseous, cold and a lot of other unpleasant things… had to stay there for two hours because they didn’t want to let me go out on the street like that.

    ghostgirl

    3:05 am

    21 Nov 13

    Permalink

    Thanks Nika, that gels with what I think would be the right approach. I always get the reminder text the day before advising that it is time to start eating well and drinking lots to prepare for the donation.

    🙂 So that means a Monday fast and a Friday fast for me next week, I don’t want to stress the staff out. Just as well this diet is nice and flexible.

    I think I read once that a blood donation ends up giving you a 600 odd calorie deficit for the day due to the rebuilding of blood in your body. An excellent excuse that I use on donation days to enjoy the chocolate milk and muffins they have for post donation recovery.

    Nika

    4:10 am

    21 Nov 13

    Permalink

    Haha yeah that’s a great excuse! I never read something like that to be honest. I know the volume of blood comes back in a day or so if you drink enough water, but building up the red blood cells again takes a lot longer.

    Anyway, good luck with the donation! 🙂

    toms mantis

    7:44 am

    21 Nov 13

    Permalink

    Chocolate drink and muffins? We get a cup of tea and a biscuit! Grossly unfair I think.

    Nika

    8:15 am

    21 Nov 13

    Permalink

    We have these apple cookie things… soft cookie though. With the apple sweet stuff in the center. No idea how to explain in english. And also some other kinds of cake-stuff. Then there’s any drink you want, yeah 🙂
    Sometimes it sucks it’s only once every few months..

    ghostgirl

    9:07 am

    21 Nov 13

    Permalink

    When I donated in the city they used to have milkshakes and party pies on offer as well as tea & coffee and biscuits. Donating in the suburbs isn’t as flash as the city (recovery food wise).

    Donate plasma and you can donate every two or three weeks. 🙂 Takes a bit longer than the straight blood donation. I’ve recently changed to donating plasma instead of whole blood.

    Aparently there is a big need for plasma donors. The plasma is really versatile and used in lots of different medical treatments. The red blood cells are returned to you with a saline solution and just the plasma is kept. Next time you are donating you might like to ask about it. A fasinating process.

    snedger

    9:16 am

    21 Nov 13

    Permalink

    The thing about blood doning is that every one reacts differently and for me at least, no two sessions are the same.
    I think that potentially anyone could faint after giving blood – just because you’ve never fainted doesn’t mean you won’t ever!
    So, with that all said – my last 6 donor sessions have all coincided with fast days – I’ve (luckily?) just sailed through it. Post some of the sessions I did have a cup of tea with milk and sugar, but lately, after realising that I was not calculating how many calories I was getting from white-sweet tea and coffee my fast days are totally water only.
    I do hate having to forego bourbon biscuits post donating – although they seem to be rare these days.
    After giving blood I just want to get away asap. Have never felt giddy. They’ve stopped telling people to wait ten minutes, so I just spend two minutes to check that I am fully capable of standing on my own two feet and then discretely leave.
    BTW I am not a very sensible person and I would not recommend fasting and blood doning on a fast day to anyone 🙂

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

You must be logged in to reply.