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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 30th, 2023

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  • I’m O-Neg. They’re relentless.

    The process used to be nice from the ‘70s to the ‘00s. You’d pop by a blood drive or your local Red Cross spot, and you could be in and out quickly and have a pleasant experience. Now, it takes 20+ minutes, just to deal with the paperwork before giving, even if you’ve filled out the app ahead of time, and the phlebotomists mostly seem disaffected and over it.

    Not to mention the fact that the Red Cross stacks up the whole-blood appointments, so that if you do have some free time in the next few days to give, the only times available are for Power Red and platelet donations. You have to go out of your way to schedule a couple of weeks ahead, or let yourself be dunned to death by their constant calls, emails, and texts.

    You can feel the MBA gears at work, driving up nominal stats and revenue, ruining an experience that should be made as convenient and pleasant as possible for folks who are giving their time and something you charge hospitals hundreds of dollars for, particularly for O-Neg donors who donate every 8 weeks.

    I used to love to donate blood and felt great about it. Now, I dread the depersonalized, corporatized experience and only drag myself to do it because it benefits other people at some point.