giving blood. there is hope

This is great to hear! It is so ridiculous I think. There are plenty of people far more promiscous than I who have a much great chance of having HIV who can give blood. Used to give blood regularly, but now? no. And I feel it is a waste.

 

I've only been able to give blood once, and that was in high school... using condoms and cleaning up apparently means absolutely nothing medically >.>

 

If you know you don't have hiv, you could lie...

but it's nice to know that SOME people realize how antiquated this is.

 

Hope indeed. ^ unfortunately people have been taken to the courts for lying--which is complete bull. "Bad" blood is weeded out anyway and people with positive blood should just be added to a no-donate list.

 

Before I became ineligible, I donated blood once and fainted, so they told I'd be better off not going back anyway. But it does seem a bit ridiculous as an absolute ban. I could understand when AIDS first broke out they needed to be extra cautious, but there's little reason to keep it going now.

 

I can still donate, but I choose not to.

The one time I did, they forced me to sit down and pretty much shoved food down my throat because I looked like I was going to pass out. I tried explaining I didn't get much sleep the previous night, but they made me miss 1 1/2 of my classes.

Granted, I passed out in 5th period, and wrote and article about the experience that ended up on a full page in the school newspaper with everyone giving me good responses to it, but still, not doing that again.