not that i'm saying i need to myself cause i'm hard for cash or anything like that, i mean, of course not!
anyone here ever donate plasma?
Yeah
It was my only source of income for some hellish time. The plus side, you get to watch a movie and get some cash. The downside is you get like holes in your arms. I used to cash mine at the liquor store on the corner, buy some whiskey and drink in the park with bloody cotton taped to the crook of my elbow, thinking myself a fancy lad. I think a lot of plasma centers have been shut down. Of course, I don't frequent them anymore so maybe they just relocated.
The holes in your arms.
I don't mean to alarm you with that warning. They close up. But if you go twice a week like I did for months at a time, the wounds never fully heal and are sensitive. Your veins start to scar and if you ever go to a hospital, they might have to drill elsewhere. So I stopped because I was paranoid about damaging my body. Also because I stopped living in my van. So I wanted to lop off the whole dirt bag lifestyle in one swift swoop.
I think they move around a lot
I remember when I went back to Bloomington the second time the plasma clinic was shuttered and I was all, "Fuck now what shall I do for booze money." But it had just moved to the far end of town, no longer walking distance from IU. Luckily -- or not -- I had a car that go-round so I could make it out there to sell plasma for both booze and gas money. Dig it: I had to go to the plasma clinic to sell plasma so I could put gas in my car to go to the plasma clinic . . . it's an ugly metaphor for wage capitalism. Actually it is just wage capitalism.
Other downsides aside from the permanent cosmetic holes: faintness, lethargy, general mood of despair. That's admittedly kind of hard to distinguish from what generally ails me but those symptoms seemed a little more pronounced while I was doing this.
While I was briefly, ah, involved with a mutual acquaintance and made some allusion to the substance of the anecdote which I have just related, she harangued me thusly: "Why the fuck would you and Jon do that. Why would anyone do that. Jesus Christ." to which I responded, "Maybe it is not so easy for us to get jobs because we are not cute girls."
I can attest to the fact that welfare is far better than selling plasma. Unfortunately you have to have a job to lose before you can collect unemployment. At the time I was kind of in the box of being a perennial graduate student. But now the Great Society has saved me. God Bless Lyndon B. Johnson.
thanks, i know of one
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That reminds me.
The worst money earner I ever had was geting $800 to have a colonoscopy and gut function tests. I lay there for 2 days unable to poo. Every time I clenched my gut, the little red pen made mountains on the chart.
Some medical studies might be good. Others are awful.
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Well, yeah, you gotta be selective. The one I'm doing is for a medication that's already been on the market 15+ years. One day a week we have to get a really small tube put in our noses, but it's not too bad. They could shove worst things in my nose for $5200.
Apparently there's a pot study going on soon in Detroit. I want to get in on that.
yeah, i'm sure medical
yeah, i'm sure medical studies take alot more time, i was just looking for something extra on the weekends or after work (which may not workout since i get off at 7pm) oh well, i know a guy here who did donate plasma once at the company in town, and he said he only got $15...nevermind! here i was thinking at least $50, but i dunno, i wouldn't mind looking into it at least once i guess.
but hell, i'd let people shove a snake up my nose for $5000.
also, Miranda, is that permanent, or were those taken after your last donation?
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They usually pay less for the first donation then incrementally more, like 15, 20, 25, 15, 20, 25. But their pay scale definitely hasn't kept pace with inflation. Last time I sold blood, a 40 of St. Ides was $1.25. Now it's more than twice that! I think the IWW should unionize blood sellers and human guinea pigs.
And Miranda, please be careful! You don't want to find yourself in some new Tuskegee Syphilis experiment.
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The study I'm doing is pretty low-risk actually. It pays so much because there are 4 different week-long stays, which is a pain in the ass for most people. The tube is inserted into our noses, and then we sort of swallow it down to our stomaches. The medication is an acid reflux medication and the tube is used to measure the ph levels in our stomaches.
Those pictures were taken 1-2 weeks after my last donation. It got a bit worse a week or two after that, but I didn't take pictures. Basically what happened is that they didn't stick me right the first time, so it was hurting. When I told them so, the person responded by grabbing the needle very quickly and jamming it further into my arm. The med center that I eventually went to said that this action caused my vein to be punctured on both sides. The bruising is from blood that's not supposed to be there getting into soft tissue, where there's no room for it. Eventually the bruising spread all the way to my wrist, up the topside of my arm, into my elbow, and a bit above the elbow as well. It cleared up in about 6 weeks.
hematoma
It's a bruise. No big deal. I have big fatty veins. I never get hematomas, but I gave one to somebody with a bad IV stick. IVs are tough because you have to push in a little tube after you stick the vein with the needle. The worst thing that happened to me was that I managed to work part of the needle out of my arm with all my fist pumping. So when the machine returned my red blood cells, they leaked all over my arm and clothes.
Joined: 2006-08-22
Location: Houston, TX