Selling blood plasma

[KaiineTN]

Anyone do/done this? I've been thinking about giving it a shot. I hear you can get like $65 a week, tax free? An extra $260 a month would be pretty nice. If anyone has experience with it, are there any downsides? Does it make you feel shitty, etc.? Share any good/bad you've heard about it, stories, whatever.

[brinstar]

I have done this.

After I quit my pizza-delivery job (we're talking spring of 2003) it took longer to find a new job than I thought, and I sold plasma for about a month so I could buy food. Then I worked at an Applebee's for five weeks, and finally one of my apps came back and I got hired on at the state.

Selling plasma is a mixed bag. At first, I thought it was cool, since I could make about $60 bucks a week tax free. Needles don't bother me, either, so basically I spent an hour laying on a gurney with a thing in my arm while I watched movies. I enjoyed watching the little machine work, it pulled no more than a quart of blood out at any given time, spun off the cells, and drained the plasma into a collection bottle (it looked like apple juice). It didn't really hurt, and since I was laying down I never got dizzy. I even got some satisfaction knowing that this plasma would end up helping burn victims or other needy patients, and that my body would easily make more.

About my third week of doing this, it started to get to me. The people in the waiting room didn't exactly seem particularly wholesome, and by then I had several negative experiences with nurses having a hard time getting the needle in at the correct angle. THAT hurt like a bitch. Some have the knack, some don't I guess. But more than that, I developed an overwhelming sense of "This is where my life has led me, this is what I've done with all that I was given and all that I had going for me." It got to be really depressing, and by the time I finally got hired on at Applebee's I was in a serious funk that took a while to climb out of. Definitely one of my lowest lows.

So anyway, sure, go ahead and do it from time to time. It's quick and easy money, which you can save up for a trip or a gaming console or something-- just don't put yourself into a position where you have to rely on it, because that sucks. Hard.