What Is Your Optimal Range?

[Mprtz]

I was offered the platelet donation last time I donated. My hematocrit has been fine, I'm just donating to keep it that way. They made it sound like I might be more woozy after giving platelets than just whole blood. It sounded like more was taken. I didn't want to risk not being able to work out that night, so I did whole blood. Is this not true? I know they don't want you working out regardless after giving blood, but I donate in the morning, and train in the evening, and I haven't had any problems. If I will notice nothing different than if I donated whole blood then I will donate platelets next time.

Also, I read in this thread that you can donate platelets more often, they said I would have to wait longer to donate. Now specifically they called it a double red blood cell donation I believe.

Apheresis is where they run your blood through a machine, filter out what they want and re-infuse the rest.

Platelet apheresis and double red cell apheresis are different. In the former they filter out platelets and give you everything else back.
In the latter they filter out red blood cells (equivalent to what's in 2 pints of whole blood) and give you (some of) the plasma back.

Platelet donation can typically be done frequently (24 times a year, or even weekly - though 12-month limits apply).
Double red cell can typically only be done every 112 days, so it has no advantage over whole blood donation. At my blood center they only want double red cells from blood type O.

There's no reason that you should be more affected by platelet apheresis than whole blood... the process just takes a lot longer and a few people will not react well to the anticoagulant that must be infused along with the returned blood products.

I've come to believe that platelet apheresis is best for HCT management because you don't lose nearly as much iron and it can be done more frequently.

 

[novaman]

Because of the advice given here I went ahead and did a platelet aphaeresis a few days ago. They we're so happy that I wanted to do it and immediately asked if I would consider coming back in 2 weeks to donate again. The one negative is that the procedure took 83 minutes as apposed to 10 minutes for giving blood. But I was watching a movie so it wasn't a big deal

 

[swilk]

I don't think all blood types can do the double red...or maybe the Red Cross just doesn't want certain types. I'm A Positive and was told no.

I think anyone can do the platelets.

 

[Virginian]

I like to keep my TT trough at least 1000 ng/dL. My HCT is not a problem. I'm 72 yo.

I'm a numbers guy so I have a spreadsheet for estimating TT and FT. My estimate for today was 1300. I went on a bike ride with about 25 people. I was in front the whole time and stopped many times to let others catch up. Before TRT I was a low average rider in the same group.

 

[halfwit]

I like to keep my TT trough at least 1000 ng/dL. My HCT is not a problem. I'm 72 yo.

I'm a numbers guy so I have a spreadsheet for estimating TT and FT. My estimate for today was 1300. I went on a bike ride with about 25 people. I was in front the whole time and stopped many times to let others catch up. Before TRT I was a low average rider in the same group.

Hot damn, I love reading stuff like this! I hope to be doing stuff like that still 30 years from now.

 

[swilk]

Ferritin is iron bound to a protein that is stored in the liver and other body tissues. It's the reserves from which hemoglobin is made. Often the two do go hand in hand (as in iron-deficiency anemia). There's a complex process of iron metabolism involving ferritin, ferroportin, hepcidin, transferrin and hemoglobin which is affected by testosterone.

I believe (seen it in myself and others) that when ferritin starts to run low you can see it in the blood profile: RBC count will be high, while MCH (mean corpuscular hemoglobin) and MCV (mean corpuscular volume) will come back low, because (I believe) testosterone is still driving the production of red blood cells but a shortage of iron is causing the individual cells to contain less hemoglobin.

View attachment 560990

Circling back to this ...

We had a wellness check done at my work place and "iron serum" was checked and came back on the low side of normal. I have continued to give blood every 8 weeks or so and my hemoglobin continues to be in that 18 range.

Few weeks ago I decided to go ahead and get a CBC and ferritin done just to see and my ferritin came back at 17 on a scale of 30-400.

Hemoglobin high side. Hematocrit high side. RBC high side. Ferritin low.

Taking an otc iron supplement for now and instead of donating blood at the 8 week mark I plan to have another CBC and ferritin test done to see exactly where Im at. Assuming im not in the danger zone I will go another 8 weeks and have a CBC and ferritin test done again. Hopefully Im able to get my ferritin levels back up and possibly not have to donate or at least not have to donate as frequently to keep everything else in check

 

[halfape211]

there's some really good stuff in this thread

 

[Low dose PCT]

Hot damn, I love reading stuff like this! I hope to be doing stuff like that still 30 years from now.

If you want to live another 30 years*******

 

[halfape211]

If you want to live another 30 years, you should stop using high amount of gear halfwit.

Low pct asswipe! you know that you are not liked by anyone. You don't even have friends. You are one fucked up little puppy. It's very obvious. So you come on here where you were given a chance the same as everyone else. Not to miss-use this forum and make judgement of other members, specially those who give their free time to help others.

Any time spent replying to people like you only encourages you to sit behind your computer, in your mothers house and get more attention. You feel that poking at members gets you attention. And it does, but it's the wrong type of attention. We feel sorry for you, little buddy. We really do. You have to realize, you may need help of some kind. Life is only going to get worse if you don't realize that you are harming yourself.

As Milton said "So here we go with another troll."

Members - Replying to his comments is equal to feeding the pigeons and wondering why there is bird shit on your house. lol

 

[tooth]

You all have me considering changing from wb. Great info here.

 

[halfape211]

You all have me considering changing from wb. Great info here.

I'm making the change for sure

 

[Mprtz]

Circling back to this ...

We had a wellness check done at my work place and "iron serum" was checked and came back on the low side of normal. I have continued to give blood every 8 weeks or so and my hemoglobin continues to be in that 18 range.

Few weeks ago I decided to go ahead and get a CBC and ferritin done just to see and my ferritin came back at 17 on a scale of 30-400.

Hemoglobin high side. Hematocrit high side. RBC high side. Ferritin low.

Taking an otc iron supplement for now and instead of donating blood at the 8 week mark I plan to have another CBC and ferritin test done to see exactly where Im at. Assuming im not in the danger zone I will go another 8 weeks and have a CBC and ferritin test done again. Hopefully Im able to get my ferritin levels back up and possibly not have to donate or at least not have to donate as frequently to keep everything else in check

My experience exactly. I took iron for a few months, but it seemed to raise my HCT more quickly than it raised ferritin :-(. Before I knew it I was at 55%.
Make sure you keep an eye on your HCT and let use know how it works out.