Think About Self-Donating Blood

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Do you remember the last time you realized that you were having serious health problems? I have never been someone who was completely in-tune with their own health, which is probably why I began focusing more on getting enough exercise and dieting properly. I started working with my doctor to get things on track, and I was really impressed with how many different options there were to help me to improve my health. This blog is all about choosing better medical care and knowing when to take hold of your health. Check out this blog to learn how to manage your own health.

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Think About Self-Donating Blood

9 March 2018
 Categories: Health & Medical , Blog


When you are getting ready for a major surgery, to start cancer treatment, or for other medical procedures, there are things that you can do that can help you through the process. One of those things is to self-donate blood that can be used during your treatment. 

Self-Donation

Self-donation means that you are going to stockpile some of your own blood so that it can be stored and transfused into you when you need it. You can do that at most hospitals, or your doctor can help set it up for you. You will go into the hospital and donate blood. They will process it for you so that it's ready to go when you need it. There are limits to how often you can donate blood, so if you are getting ready for some kind of major surgery or cancer treatment, then you are going to want to start as soon as possible. You may also want to talk to family members who would be a blood match for you and ask them to donate as well. There are different ways that the blood bank can process your blood for you before it gets given back. One of those ways is leukapheresis. 

Leukapheresis

You may be wondering what, exactly, leukapheresis is. Well, it's the process in which the lab separates one component of your blood from the others. There are several reasons for this. For example, if the blood you donated has too many white blood cells, the process will clean out those white blood cells and leave the blood with the other components with no problems. At this point, you could actually have that blood transfused back into your body.

Another reason to do this is that this process will also pack the blood full of red blood cells and other things that you need if you end up needing to be transfused. The packs of blood will be more concentrated than they might otherwise be. If you self-donated prior to cancer treatment, the doctors may transfuse that blood back to you at some point because all of those red blood cells can make you feel more energetic and help you feel better in the long run. 

If you have some big medical procedure coming up, then you want to make sure that you are going to come out of it as well as possible. Self-donating blood can help you with that. Contact companies like Key Biologics, LLC to learn more.