Blood donors

Hi everyone,

I know there was a discussion on this a while ago, and the general consensus you could give blood while taking most asthma meds except pred, but I wondered if anyone had been told they couldnt donate any more?

I went to donate a couple of weeks ago, having had a couple of years off when asthma was wonky, but got turned down then - nurse thought asthma wasnt good enough, although I reckon its pretty good at the moment, but maybe shouldnt have gone in mid summer, first thing in morning and walked there. But I've just had a letter advising me to stop donating at all. I'm a bit shocked, really. When I talked to the nurse at the session, she said to just wait a bit and there was nothing to stop me donating in future as long as not SOB, and as athma can vary so much it seems a bit strange to just have a 'never again' thing.

I know in the grand scheme of things its not a big deal, but I wondered if others have had this?

Ali

[Hidden]

The Blood Service are about as paranoid as can be about anything affecting their donations - and with good reason, but sometimes they can go over the top.

It's not a good idea to donate when you're asthma's unstable or bad, as chances are you'd feel a bit short of breath anyway after giving blood, so you don't want to make that worse.

I don't know why they've stopped you donating at all - when my mum's asthma was unstable they deferred her until she was better, and then had her back. It may be worth a call to the donor helpline to discuss this.

I've not been turned away from donating at all, even for asthma reasons (although last time I went I had to spell ""asthma"" for the clerking nurse...what!?).

[yaf_user681_26410]

It may depend on what medication you are taking orally for your asthma. Any medication that gets absorbed into your blood system needs to be cleaned out of your blood before being given to a recipient. They explained it all to me over the phone when I tried to make my donor appointment. I was able to donate when just on 10mg of citirizine, but once that had been doubled to 20mg and singulair added they said the cleaning process becam to long and difficult. Inhalers are no problem at all.

[Hidden]

Never had any probs on singulair 10mg myself...it seems their ""processes"" may not be standardised.

[Hidden]

i have never had problems with asthma related meds - as long as i am not on pred at the time of donation and my asthma is ok at time of donation too - they had no problems with desloratadine and singulair as they said it wasn't to do with the effect on the blook but more what you were takin them for and how ill that meant you were if that makes sense - so in their book they said that steroids were a no no but singulair not even mentioned as a problem. inhalers obviously fine too. I did find though that they stopped me donating for a few years because i was born in africa - so there was a malerial risk apparantly - even thoguh i've never had it - but they've finally developed a test for that now. havne't been able to donate for a while as been on pred, but hoping to again once i'm off it. sorry for the rambling - am tired! but in essence - have never been told i cna't donate - just told not to go whilst on pred or asthma playing up

Cathbear - have had to spell some of my meds before - as some of them only know wbout brown and blue inhalers but never had to spell asthma before!!

[Hidden]

thanks everyone. seems like it could just vary between places. the letter I got was from the NBS but I guess they just go by the information from the nurse at the donor session.

Oh well. Like I said, I know its not a big deal, but I suppose I really was feeling that I was getting on top of things and back to 'normal'