I was talking with a friend yesterday morning, and it was mentioned that the plasma center was paying $50 for donors first 5 donations. I thought damn... $250 for free for doing nothing more than giving some fluids. Well I went yesterday afternoon... figured 3 hours out of my day was nothing and I'd get a nice clean crisp $50 bill. Well nope... I did get a $50 prepaid debit card... but damn that shit hurt. A 17g needle in the AC is not a nice way to spend 30-45 minutes. My shit is still sore from donating, I would say to hell with it and not go back... but they apparently can't do shit with just 1 donation, so I will go back Wed. give another and collect another $50... but I think I'm done after that. Did I mention it hurt?
Did it. Worked at one as an operations supervisor for 5 years. Two words: fuck that. It isn't worth the time or the scars that those 16 and 17 gauge needles leave on your arm.
I'm only doing this 4 more times to collect my full $250, then I'm done. I'll be alternating between both arms, I'm not living with that gaping whole of a scar I saw on a few people yesterday. That's an issue with either using the same arm over and over, or a career plasma giver. Either way it's nasty and not for me.
Career plasma. I've seen holes that look like belly buttons, or small vaginal lips in the anticubital. Payments will go to like 20 and 30 bucks a pop after that. The only reason they pay that much up front is because law requires them to have multiple complete sets of negative viral marker and PCR testing, which requires multiple units. If you only donate once or twice, the plasma isn't manufactured into meds, only for reagents.
Until recently, I had always thought it was as simple giving blood, but no. As you guys mentioned, they use a huge needle and it hurts like a mofo. Like blood, I guess plasma is needed to save lives, but I'm squeamish with needles anyway, so this isn't for me. I'll donate blood, but not plasma.
Lots of us gave plasma back in the 70's when they paid cash for it, there was a plasma center on Chimes street and it was very good money at the time. But at some point they changed and they wouldn't buy Plasma anymore and only took donations and the center did not last long after that. I wonder why they started paying again?
I imagine it's because it hurts like hell and not many are going to sign up for that kind of pain unless they're getting something in return. Kinda sad, but pain hurts.
That "very good money" if I remember was $5. The Plasma center on Chimes Street was next door to Magoo's bar. Draft beer was about 40 or 50 cents a mug so a lot of people would give plasma and then get drunk next door. A lot of nights a prison bus would pull up and the convicts would give plasma. I only gave plasma once and it hurt like hell. They took your blood out and then you had to wait while they took the plasma out and then put the blood back into you.
I'm pretty sure it was $5 and it took about 2 hours in the early 70s. If it had been $20 I would have done it more then once. The Lady of the Lake Hospital blood bank did pay $20 for whole blood but you couldn't give whole blood more often than every couple of months. And that only took a half hour
