Thursday, January 19, 2012

Imagine my surprise when I found out: Stationed in Germany 80-96? You can't give blood!

I hate needles. Hate 'em.

BUUUT, I've been thinking about donating blood since I got signed up with Be The Match... if they'd take coffee-based blood, that is.

So, I started to look into it. And, like hundreds of thousands of others who served over there from 1980 to 1996, I cannot give blood, either to the Red Cross or the Armed Services Blood Program. (How's that for irony?)

We were, apparently, running the risk of exposure to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the ubiquitous "Mad Cow" disease.

I've seen pictures of autopsied brains with this stuff... they look like an old sponge.

I'm just mentioning this stuff as a public service.  heads up, Cold War vets.

1 comment:

Lew said...

With some of the crap we were exposed to deployed anywhere, I'm surprised they accept any blood from Veterans.

My time in Germany was 1971 to 1974 and I have no idea if that or my time in Vietnam would preclude me if I offered to donate.

On another note, isn't it ironic that Veterans would be denied donating blood while efforts are underway to allow homosexuals to donate blood.