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I’ll still give. Not sure I want to take. I guess they think their blood screening is good enough to catch that HIV stuff. Note that the lawmakers said something along the lines of: “We now have medication that makes HIV a minor problem”

To be honest, the whole process of donating blood, all the questions you are asked in the screening process, it’s really all the honor system, no? If a sexually active gay man who was also an IV drug user and male prostitute walked into a blood donation center, what is to keep him from lying on the questionnaire? So yes, they test the blood for HIV, and a lot of other things too.

When I donated last month, the questions hadn’t changed here in PA including all the questions related to HIV risks; sex with IV drug users, illegal drug use and sharing needles, sex with prostitutes, either male or female, sex with men who have had sex with men, etc….but then there are also the questions about tattoos, overseas travel, having spent more than a certain amount of time in the UK or Europe during a span of years (don’t recall what it was but is related to risk of Mad Cow disease) but let’s face it, they are trusting you to answer these questions honestly so, yea, they test the blood for a whole host of things anyway even if you answered no to all the questions that would exclude you.

And if you answer affirmatively to any of the questions that would exclude you from donating, FWIU, they will still take your blood if you ask them too, as to not call you out or potentially embarrass you in front of others, especially in cases where you are donating as part of a work or church blood drive or any drive where you are with people you might know but may not want to answer potentially embarrassing question about why you couldn’t give, but they will put some sort of sticker on the bag that marks it for destruction, or so I’ve been told. The only time I wasn’t allowed to donate was when was my BP reading was too high.

My nephew’s wife was the daughter of a US service member and was born in Germany and lived in Germany and then in the UK until she was about 6 or 7 years old during the years when contracting Mad Cow was a risk. So she can’t donate blood. But when I say can’t, she could in theory go to donate and lie….not that she would.

My brother even though he is O- can’t donate because when he was 12 years old he contracted viral meningitis and encephalitis and his daughter can’t donate because she contracted Hep A and my father could never have donated blood because he contracted malaria during WWII.

So I donate in their place.

Aside from HBP which after I lost weight is under control now and without meds, I’m ridiculously heathy. I even had my first colonoscopy back in March and while having a few polyps would not be unusual for someone my age, after I woke up from the procedure, the doc talked to me and said, “no polyps at all, and your colon is just beautiful”. To which I said (and it may have been the after effect of the anesthesia), “Well the Dali Lama once told me I would also receive total consciousness and so with that and a beautiful colon, I have two things going for me, which is nice.”

The doc looked at me, and then busted out laughing. He was still laughing when they released me to go home 30 minutes later.