Donating plasma is a rewarding task, and I encourage you to try it out for yourself, so you can form your own opinion. With this being said, here is my personal story of my short time with Bio Life.
When I first moved to Kokomo, I couldn’t find a job anywhere. I was living in a shared house, where rent was cheap, and it was actually possible to get by on donating plasma and picking up odd jobs here and there. When donating plasma in Kokomo, you’ll either receive $50 or $60 a week depending on whether you have reached your fifth donation or not (every fifth donation you receive an extra $10). It’s possible donating twice a week (the maximum amount) to earn $250 extra dollars a month. Many people donate in Kokomo and have no problems. Friends of mine have been donating for years without any complications. I however, wasn’t so lucky.
My first month of donating went fairly well. Many people can donate in 45 minutes or less, I always took an hour and a half. There is no real “set time” when it comes to donating plasma, it all just depends on how your body is working. I’ve heard drinking a good amount of water before you donate will help speed the process up, but this backfired pretty hard on me, and I almost peed my pants once waiting for the machine to get done sucking my arm up. My second month of donating plasma is where the complications began. I went in on Monday, and halfway through my session, all the power went out in the building. As a result of the power shortage, I lost quite a bit of red blood cells (which are usually fed back into the body, separate from the donated plasma). I was told if I had any sort of complication within the next 8 weeks, that I would not be able to donate for an additional 8 weeks. Well, when I went in Friday, I had a needle push right through my vein on the left arm, and then again on my right arm, and I haven’t been able to donate since.
The complications I had at Bio Life have given me a negative view on the facility as a whole. I will admit, my veins are not extremely visible, but I would expect the staff to either A. tell me they wouldn’t “stick” me, or B. get their best man to come and give me the “jab”. Bio Life did neither of these, and it’s hard to forgive them for such an error. What makes this mistake harder to handle, is finding out later that their staff is not required to have gone to school to be phelbotomists, but are rather just trained “on the fly” at the facility. Knowing this, it was hard for me to believe I made it through the first month problem-free.
It’s not all doom and gloom though, and many people have gone to Bio Life for years without ever being treated in this unfortunate manner. I may have even avoided this situation completely if I would have taken advantage of Bio-Life’s flexibility with their staff. When you donate at Bio Life, for whatever reason, no questions asked, you can always request a certain staff member to “stick” you, or NOT “stick” you, so if you have your doubts, make sure you speak up!!
What’s most important is that you try donating plasma out. Donating plasma is a simple, easy, and rewarding thing to do. And for every horror story such as mine, there are four or five people who never experience any problems at all. If you’re thinking about donating in Kokomo, and you’re a “first timer” make sure you call first and schedule an appointment for a physical ((765) 453-5670). The physical is very routine, and they basically just give you a long list of questions, and mark any tattoos you have. (you can not have a tattoo that is less than a year old in order to donate) Bio Life is located at 111 E Alto Rd, right next to Lowe’s.
