submitted 6 days ago by RNAi@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

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[-] neroiscariot@hexbear.net 17 points 6 days ago

I do this when I can for extra cash, I also do freelance and an etsy store, but plasma money still helps. Here is my beef(s) with it:

Amount paid weekly is stacked to the 2nd donation. So, you generally get $50 for one visit, then $65 or $75 (depending on the specials...yay) for the second. If you don't make your second appointment, you are screwing yourself because...
The visits take awhile. Even with new machines that UNCOMFORTABILY suck the blood out of you to get the plasma, you are looking at 90-120 minutes in there. That's not counting time to get to the center (nearest one is 20 mins away from where I live). That is a huge time suck and
It freaking hurts. I don't blame the staff, but they are trying to stick as many people as quickly as possible. This is not like a regular blood donation where it is a few minutes. Your donation time is about 45-60 minutes. A bad stick will lead to a decreased amount of blood per draw, plus pain. Often, the solution to a bad stick is to just tap the other arm, which then means you have to find a fresh vein the next time you go that week and -You are wiped out after. I am pretty exhausted and hungry after I do this. So, you should probably eat some decent food to compensate, but that costs money. The money you just spent 2-3 hours getting by selling plasma, so you sometimes eat something cheap and feel worse.

I have noticed more and more people donating in the past few years as shit gets worse. With more people doing it, centers can offer less per person because "who gives a fuck?" I know what they take out of me is worth a lot more than what they give me...so it is just a bleak and shitty situation while you are doing it...but hey, money, right?

[-] PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 6 days ago

Yep this has been my experience as well. I'd add to that list - a power outage in the middle of a session. None of the staff knew what to do. Big open building full of stations, all active, all down mid process.

After the confusion died down and the staff had been told what to do, they were offering to continue or at least put the partially-centrifuged blood back. I said no thank you for the possible embolism and dipped. I'm an engineer. I know those machines are engineered very well, but I also know the limits of engineering and edge case testing.

Add to that 2 or 3 incidents years later where they wrapped my arm so poorly afterwards that I started bleeding everywhere after a few. One of those being a time I specifically asked them to be careful because that exact person fucked it up last time.

I don't strictly need it these days so I've stopped. But yep, just yet more indignity and danger for the poor, go USA!