Re: Donating your own blood

[Guest guest]

Nichol

I didn't donate before my surgery. My OS felt I didn't need to. He

did put me on iron tablets pre-surgery to make sure my blood was good

and strong. I survived surgery very well and never needed any blood

pumped back into me.

Good luck.

Sara

> Hi Everyone,

>

> I have my surgery planned for July 27th. I don't know all the

correct terminology, but I am having both my upper and lower jaws

broken and brought forward. I will have a total of 5 breaks. My

surgeon recommends donating your own blood beforehand to be given

back to you after the surgery. I was planning on doing this until I

found out the cost. My insurance won't cover personal donations, and

the cost to ship and store my blood is $650. I know in the big

scheme of things this isn't a ton, but it is all adding up and I'm

feeling over whelmed.

>

> I talked to my surgeon about getting donated blood, but they said

that I won't necessarily need the blood, they just like to put your

own blood back into your body to " super charge the recovery. "

>

> For $650 I don't know how " super charged " this will be. They won't

give me shelf blood, b/c it defeats the purpose of super charging

your recovery, and say I won't lose enough to have to resort to

that. In rare cases if I do lose that much, they will give me shelf

blood.

>

> So....do any of you have advise for me? Have any of you chosen not

to donate? What was the outcome? Any help would be greatly

appreciated. I only have a few more days to decide before it's too

close to my surgery.

>

> Thanks a ton!

>

> Nichol

>

> __________________________________________________

>

[Guest guest]

Nichol, Most surgeons prefer you donate a unit of your own blood.

My surgeon wanted me to donate one, but (1) we were going out of

town to grandchildren's graduation, (2) my hemoglobin usually runs

barely above the minimum for donation & (3) I have really lousy

veins (and a mastectomy arm they're not suppose to use). So all in

all we decided I probably needed what I already had. I was on iron

and Vitamin C for two weeks prior to surgery.

Most OS now use what they call hypotensive anesthesia (reduced blood

pressure) to reduce blood loss. Probably 99% of the people having

this surgery (Lefort 1, BSSO, genio-upper & lower jaw & chin), do

not ever need a transfusion. I happened to be in the 1%. I lost

equivalent to about 2-3 units of blood. Normally our bodies will

rebuild that blood fairly quickly. But I have some intestinal

absorption issues and was starting to have symptoms - increase heart

rate, almost passed out ( & I never pass out!), etc. In consultation

with my internist we decided I would receive a unit of banked

blood. It definitely helped me feel better.

It is better if you can donate your own blood, as though risks of

banked blood are low, banked blood still has some risks. In my case

(I'm a ex-blood banker, so know all the risks) the benefits

outweighed the risks.

Hopefully this answers some of your questions about " autologous "

blood donations.

Shirley

(Lefort 1, BSSO, genio, turbinectomies on 6/23/05)

[Guest guest]

Nichol Mroz wrote:

>Hi Everyone,

>

>I have my surgery planned for July 27th. I don't know all the correct

terminology, but I am having both my upper and lower jaws broken and brought

forward. I will have a total of 5 breaks. My surgeon recommends donating your

own blood beforehand to be given back to you after the surgery. I was planning

on doing this until I found out the cost. My insurance won't cover personal

donations, and the cost to ship and store my blood is $650. I know in the big

scheme of things this isn't a ton, but it is all adding up and I'm feeling over

whelmed.

>

>I talked to my surgeon about getting donated blood, but they said that I won't

necessarily need the blood, they just like to put your own blood back into your

body to " super charge the recovery. "

>

>For $650 I don't know how " super charged " this will be. They won't give me

shelf blood, b/c it defeats the purpose of super charging your recovery, and say

I won't lose enough to have to resort to that. In rare cases if I do lose that

much, they will give me shelf blood.

>

>So....do any of you have advise for me? Have any of you chosen not to donate?

What was the outcome? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I only have a few

more days to decide before it's too close to my surgery.

>

>Thanks a ton!

>

I went through the Red Cross in Pasadena, CA to donate (I'm an Arnett

patient as well) and they once mentioned a $600.00 cost -- but they

never collected and they never billed me. Maybe it was a paperwork

screwup, who knows. Try the Red Cross and see what flies...

Bill

[Guest guest]

Hello Nichol,

Wow we are having surgery around the same time a few days apart.

Mines is scheduled for July 25th. I donated my blood at a blood

bank...My OS sent a referral to the blood bank then the process

begun. I later called the office staff to see did I rack up any

charges in the process...they told me no, as long as it's in

conjuction with the surgical procedure. Hope this helps.

Best wishes,

Sanya

> Hi Everyone,

>

> I have my surgery planned for July 27th. I don't know all the

correct terminology, but I am having both my upper and lower jaws

broken and brought forward. I will have a total of 5 breaks. My

surgeon recommends donating your own blood beforehand to be given

back to you after the surgery. I was planning on doing this until I

found out the cost. My insurance won't cover personal donations, and

the cost to ship and store my blood is $650. I know in the big

scheme of things this isn't a ton, but it is all adding up and I'm

feeling over whelmed.

>

> I talked to my surgeon about getting donated blood, but they said

that I won't necessarily need the blood, they just like to put your

own blood back into your body to " super charge the recovery. "

>

> For $650 I don't know how " super charged " this will be. They won't

give me shelf blood, b/c it defeats the purpose of super charging

your recovery, and say I won't lose enough to have to resort to

that. In rare cases if I do lose that much, they will give me shelf

blood.

>

> So....do any of you have advise for me? Have any of you chosen not

to donate? What was the outcome? Any help would be greatly

appreciated. I only have a few more days to decide before it's too

close to my surgery.

>

> Thanks a ton!

>

> Nichol

>

>

>

> ---------------------------------

> Sell on Yahoo! Auctions - No fees. Bid on great items.

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Sanya,

That's great you didn't incur any additional charges. I had an appointment

scheduled about a week ago to donate blood, and was hoping they would just bill

my insurance. Before the appointment I found out that they don't bill insurance

companies, so they said I would have to pay and be reimbursed by my insurance.

I know how that goes, so I called my insurance company to make sure they cover

the costs. After 3 phone calls, I found out they didn't. I canceled my

appointment since I thought I would be okay, but it has been in the back of my

mind ever since, and left me with more anxiety.

How are you holding up? In the beginning I couldn't wait to just get the

surgery over with, but now that it is getting closer, I'm getting nervous. I

trust my surgeon, and not scared anything wrong will happen, just scared of the

pain I know is inevitable.

I'm going to be banded for 8 weeks. They told me I have to have a liquid diet

for those 8 weeks, and soft food for the next 8. I guess most people lose close

to 15% of their body weight, so I've been eating it up. I guess that is one

bennefit! Right now I'm sitting here with my second helping of ice cream!

Yummy!

Thanks for the insight, and I look forward to seeing how everything goes.

Nichol

stylist998 wrote:

Hello Nichol,

Wow we are having surgery around the same time a few days apart.

Mines is scheduled for July 25th. I donated my blood at a blood

bank...My OS sent a referral to the blood bank then the process

begun. I later called the office staff to see did I rack up any

charges in the process...they told me no, as long as it's in

conjuction with the surgical procedure. Hope this helps.

Best wishes,

Sanya

> Hi Everyone,

>

> I have my surgery planned for July 27th. I don't know all the

correct terminology, but I am having both my upper and lower jaws

broken and brought forward. I will have a total of 5 breaks. My

surgeon recommends donating your own blood beforehand to be given

back to you after the surgery. I was planning on doing this until I

found out the cost. My insurance won't cover personal donations, and

the cost to ship and store my blood is $650. I know in the big

scheme of things this isn't a ton, but it is all adding up and I'm

feeling over whelmed.

>

> I talked to my surgeon about getting donated blood, but they said

that I won't necessarily need the blood, they just like to put your

own blood back into your body to " super charge the recovery. "

>

> For $650 I don't know how " super charged " this will be. They won't

give me shelf blood, b/c it defeats the purpose of super charging

your recovery, and say I won't lose enough to have to resort to

that. In rare cases if I do lose that much, they will give me shelf

blood.

>

> So....do any of you have advise for me? Have any of you chosen not

to donate? What was the outcome? Any help would be greatly

appreciated. I only have a few more days to decide before it's too

close to my surgery.

>

> Thanks a ton!

>

> Nichol

>

>

>

> ---------------------------------

> Sell on Yahoo! Auctions - No fees. Bid on great items.

>

>

[Guest guest]

>

> >Hi Everyone,

> >

> >I have my surgery planned for July 27th. I don't know all the

correct terminology, but I am having both my upper and lower jaws

broken and brought forward. I will have a total of 5 breaks. My

surgeon recommends donating your own blood beforehand to be given

back to you after the surgery. I was planning on doing this until I

found out the cost. My insurance won't cover personal donations,

and the cost to ship and store my blood is $650. I know in the big

scheme of things this isn't a ton, but it is all adding up and I'm

feeling over whelmed.

> >

> >I talked to my surgeon about getting donated blood, but they said

that I won't necessarily need the blood, they just like to put your

own blood back into your body to " super charge the recovery. "

> >

> >For $650 I don't know how " super charged " this will be. They

won't give me shelf blood, b/c it defeats the purpose of super

charging your recovery, and say I won't lose enough to have to

resort to that. In rare cases if I do lose that much, they will

give me shelf blood.

> >

> >So....do any of you have advise for me? Have any of you chosen

not to donate? What was the outcome? Any help would be greatly

appreciated. I only have a few more days to decide before it's too

close to my surgery.

> >

> >Thanks a ton!

> >

> I went through the Red Cross in Pasadena, CA to donate (I'm an

Arnett

> patient as well) and they once mentioned a $600.00 cost -- but

they

> never collected and they never billed me. Maybe it was a paperwork

> screwup, who knows. Try the Red Cross and see what flies...

>

> Bill

It was $300 for me at the blood center in Santa Barbara (I cna't

recall exactly what it was). Also, my insurance ended up covering

it. According to my plan, it's not covered unless the surgery is

pre authorized. However, my insurance plan also reads that they

DON'T pre authorize surgery. So I wrote multiple letters asking

about the catch-22 of this situation and then made copies of the

letters they wrote me agreeing that the surgery was medically

necessary and three months later I had my three hundred dollar

reimbursement. So maybe try another blood bank, so see if there's

small print.

Cheers,

Nina