I'm a little annoyed ... is it justified

[MissyMouse]

I just got an email from my step-mom, she was filling me in on how my Dad is and happened to mention something to the effect of I would be really impressed at how well they are testing the blood supply now, they refused to allow her to make her regular blood donation because she and my Dad stayed with  me for 2 weeks in January.  They told her she could return in 6 months and she told them, no I can't, I'll be staying with  my daughter again.

Is this a little on the extreme side?   Bill and I thought it was extreme when he got permanently banned from donating blood because he was stationed in Germany in the early 80's and that is one of the places Mad Cow Disease was.

Is it me that is being unreasonable for thinking this is extreme?  Should I be greatfull that they are being so fussy?  There is always a shortgage in the blood supply here in Florida.  Quite frankly I'm feeling like a freakazoid.

Mouse

[Betty W.]

Yes I would be more than annoyed !!!! It stinks......There is a blood shortage and makes us look and feel like freakus .....

What can you do !!!!

Betty

[Hank's mom]

Sounds like a case of mis-education and awareness. Blood that is taken for banks is tested for all KNOWN diseases/infections/viruses. If there is any sign of these, it may be achieved by a 2nd set of tests or just one to make sure the first one was just a glitch in the system. I can't even comment on Bill's moment in time - sounds like the banners that be had a mild case of the mad cow with out the disease.

What an awful position to put all of you in, including your step mom.

I know you have the skills to do this - write a letter to our Surgeon General. You might want to add that C. Everett Koop, the SG under Carter, issued warnings in person and on paper about the silent killer and the possibility of how many millions of people would be effected. He still has a sight, if you want to look it up.

There is no excuse for ignorance. Dr. Martin Luther King said, "the day will come when a person will be judged by the content of his character not the color of his skin." In our case, as it happened with AIDS, we are looked upon as IV drug users, gay, promiscuous hookers with a thing for S&M, not the human beings we are and were when doctors washed their hands with phisohex (spell), yet didn't routinely wear gloves. Of course you know the 100s of other possibilities. (My ex, a vet from Viet Nam couldn't give blood because he had malaria and a disease of unknown origin, plus some sort of non A, non B hep. God help those who got stuck when their heads were in the sand.

Whatever comes of this, know it is based on ignorance, not any display of being a bio-terrorist.

[DougV]

Missy,

Do you think it's possible it might be more your step-mom then anyone.  I'm having a hard time even picturing someone ask "Have you happened to have spent the night at the house of a person known to have HCV in the past six months."  So to me it seems perhaps a bit more likely that step-mom instead initiated this by perhaps saying, " Oh no dear, should I give blood?  My step daughter has hep and we spent days at her house."

Me too on the Mad Cow thing BTW, Europe in both 80's and 90's and during the height of it in England.  But heck even I wouldn't want my blood anyway, so no matter.......

Doug

[emkins1]

Hello folks!  Don't 'speck y'all to remember me after a long time gone, but I decided to revisit this morning.  This thread interests me because my two best friends have been banned from donating blood because they answered "yes" to the question, "Have you ever been around someone with viral hepatitis?"

[robin]

This is the first I've hear on this...they should be talking about Hep A since it is spread in a completely different manner than Hep C or even B. Viral hepatitis is contagious much more so. My ex had viral hep when he was traveling a lot and everyone he came in close contact with had to get gamma globulin shots and monitored for a period of time. Just my two cents and we all know that isn't worth much at all.
Keep your spirits high...robin