Article Source: Vitalant web site
The
Bay Area Blood Bank (Blood Centers of the Pacific) recently joined additional
blood banks under the new name Vitalant.
This
editor has been donating blood multiple times a year for many years and invites
readers to consider donating and/or becoming an ongoing donator.
Visit our website (https://www.bloodheroes.com/) for more information regarding donating
blood, as well as medication and travel restrictions.
Learn more (https://www.vitalant.org/Donate/Donor-Eligibility.aspx) about medication and travel
restrictions to prepare you for the questionnaire.
We offer free cholesterol testing every time you
donate so remember to check your results seven days after your donation. In
addition, we post two years’ worth of wellness information, such as your blood
pressure, pulse rate and hemoglobin, so you can track this information from one
donation to the next or from one year to the next.
Please bring a photo ID and your donor card to
your appointment (if this is your
first time donating with Vitalant, please make sure to bring a photo ID). Eat a low fat meal and make sure you drink plenty
of liquids prior to your donation.
If you are donating platelets, please do not take aspirin (or any medication containing aspirin) within 48 hours prior to your donation.
Donating
platelets takes blood out and separates the needed components and then
returns the unneeded components back to the donor. This process
takes longer. See below:
If you
have been told previously by Vitalant or another blood center that you should
never donate blood, please disregard this message.
If you
recently made a blood donation, or if you have already scheduled an appointment
to donate blood, please accept our thanks on behalf of the patients whose lives
you may have touched.
Vitalant
270
Masonic Avenue
San
Francisco, CA 94118
vitalant.org
877-258-4825
(877-25VITAL)