Plasmapheresis

Plasmapheresis (or regular donations) is a way of offloading older, damaged proteins that accumulate.  That's why wealthy people pay $8k - $10k for plasmapheresis.  Think of it like changing the oil in your car.  Do you need to regularly change the oil in your car? Nope. Not if you don't care about how long your engine will last. As we age, waste products increasingly accumulate within our blood in much the same way.

I used to donate for free through the American Red Cross, and I would still much prefer that. I don't care so much about the money; I would like my plasma to go to burn victims, plus I wouldn't have to wait 2 hours in line there just to donate.

But I have two problems:

1) My veins look terrific, but they are very surfacy, shallow, flat and,

2) the Red Cross centers near me are staffed with very old, retired nurses.

Whenever I donate anywhere, I always pre-warn the clinician as to the tricky nature of my veins and let them know that they need to go in very steep and to stay close to the surface. They are my veins after all, and no one knows them as well as I do!  But in their arrogance, the old Red Cross nurses invariably tell me, "Son, I've been drawing blood for 30 years, I think I know what I'm doing!"

Every single time, they've refused to listen to me.  They'll go in way too deep and end up going straight through my vein (if they even hit it to begin with), which then causes a hematoma. When they miss completely, they'll often begin moving the needle around under my skin, which is quite painful! As a result, my donations with them always leave me battered and bruised, are extremely uncomfortable, and are nearly always unsuccessful.

It got so bad after a while that whenever I would come in, they'd recognize me from prior visits and refuse to draw from me! They would send me away without even trying, blaming my veins!

So now I donate through BioLife Plasma Services, because they mostly listen to me, and when they do, my donations go smoothly.  With multiple locations in each of 37 states (US), chances are good that there's a donation center near you.  

If there is no BioLife near you, you can alternatively look into CSL Plasma. You'll get 500 bonus iGive points on your second donation, using code KILSKV7JRF.

You are permitted to donate plasma up to twice per week.  I go through rounds of donations about once every quarter, donating twice-weekly for 4-5 weeks.

The average 70 kg adult (154 lbs) has about 3.5 liters of plasma, or 50–55 mL/kg.  I weigh 75.75 kg (167 lbs), so my body contains between 3787.5 - 4166.25 mL of plasma.  

They typically draw only about 835 mL from me each time I donate (based on my weight).

3787.5 mL / 835 mL = 4.535 donations

4166.25 mL / 835 mL = 4.989 donations

So this means that my entire blood volume of plasma is filtered in just under 5 donations, or in 2.5 weeks of donating. 

I like to go for 5 weeks to cycle through my entire blood volume nearly twice. I say "nearly" only because occasionally a donation attempt is unsuccessful, due to the challenging nature of my veins.

I am also amused by the thought that two months of plasma donations will completely pay for my next ten HBOT treatments.