Donating blood

Today I had my blood test at Sanquin to check if I am allowed to donate blood etc.

A few years ago, when I was in my first year of the university I joined a friend of mine who wanted to donate blood. At that time they didn't let me donate as they told that with my 55kg I will faint - although the official limit was 50kg.

This time I decided to try in the Netherlands. After finding out that there are two places where you can do it, I decided to opt for the one which had website in English. :) I filled a form and waited for around a week before they called me and arranged a blood test after three weeks - as no earlier date was available. There I noted the first difference - in Latvia they immediately take your blood already in the first visit, while here they just check it.

Today I arrived in Sanquin, filled the form (available also in English, great) and tried to remember if I ever had blood transfusion , which non-European countries did I visit in the last three years and some other a bit tricky questions if you are not very sure about your health and travel history (like me).

Then I had a talk with a doctor who assured me that they require 51kg and mine 55kg are definitely fine. She confirmed that being born in Latvia is fine (as it's in Europe) and doesn't create any problems for donating blood and asked some other clarifing questions.

After that, she checked my hemoglobin level and ... there was a problem! According to her, it's fine if your hemoglobin level is above 7 and mine was 7,6/7,5, which is completely OK. However, for blood donors they request 7,8 to make sure that the donor will not suffer from anything. In around two months they will invite me to a blood test again and if my level will be higher, I will be allowed to donate blood.

Luckily I was still able to do blood test where they check if I have any of these - Hepatits B and C, HIV, syphilis and HTLV (the leukaemia virus). They will let me know the result, but I shouldn't have any of them, of course!

So that's all. Now we just wait and see! At least I know how this process is happening here and that there are several differences between Latvia and the Netherlands in terms of selecting appropiate donors.

While in Latvia they also pay three lats (around five euro) to donors, here they don't - but there are still cookies and coffee available. And they have a wonderful view!