All of my 100+ plasma donations were at the main Grifols in Edmonton. They were very nice people and while they would vary with how strictly they enforced the rules they never ignored the loud warning sounds from machines.

The Canada-wide supension of operations appears to be related to the clinic in Winnipeg. I know they had two deaths of donors. There have been no public allegations, or lawsuits that the deaths were due to inappropriate behaviour by staff. I have seen anonymous allegations they were ignoring warning sounds, but no one went on the record with that.

I was donating to bring in a little extra cash. I'm starting a new job on Monday that puts me in a position where I would have quit donating if operations hadn't been suspended. So I started thinking of Grifols as my final donation would have been sometime this past week.

There were many regular donors who definitely seemd dependent on the compensation. I left my last appointment because an hour after the appointment time they still hadn't even called me in to screen. People who are willing to wait that long to donate must really need the money.

I was just told kedplasma won't be doing referral bonuses this month. Can anyone corroborate that? Every other employee said I should get one except the guy it took 45 minutes to get ahold of. Seems fishy

I tried to donate plasma for the first time in my whole 45 years of life and I got rejected because my resting heart rate was too high. The first time it was 125 beats per minute, then they waited 5 minutes and it was 112 BPM.

The requirement is BPM has to be between 50 BPM and 100 BPM.

I need to try again tomorrow (Saturday) morning, but I need suggestions on how to get my BPM lower .... to 100 max.

ALL my other numbers were fine, it's just my resting heart rate thats too high.

And its high because I am nervous about a 17 gauge needle stuck in my arm and remaining there for 45 minutes.

For the most part, needles don't bother me... I give myself injections every 3 months in my hip as well as using auto-injector for my migraines.

But yesterday was the first time I ever walked into a plasma center and as you can see represented in my heart rate... the place make me nervous.

Any suggestions on how to lower my resting heart rate temporarily enough to get past the screening so I can donate?

Someone has hacked my donating card from Octapharma Plasma. Now I barely have any money left on it. What do I do?

I was told to drink 128 ounces of water the night before donating. I've been doing 64 to 70 ounces. So I'm not doing it right?

This is the second time I’ve donated the same day as I start my period. I’m 28, have 3 kids that are 6+ and my tubes are BURNT because me and my husband both agreed that 3 is enough so there is literally no chance of me being pregnant and have regular periods that are HEAVY and the cramps are always pretty bad to where I’ll have to squat down with my feet apart and my fist buried in my stomach with my legs helping to push my fist against my lower abdomen and both times I’ve went to donate the same day I start my period then I haven’t had ANY cramps… literally NONE! And instead of having to change a S+ every hour and a half at the beginning then I’ve been changing a R every few hours. I drink lots of water and make sure to stay properly hydrated so I know I’m not dehydrated at all. Has anyone else experienced something like this? And no there is no possibility of me having caught something that would affect my period because me and my husband have been together since 7th grade and I have no doubt in my mind that he is 100% loyal.

hi

lately i have been going early 7:30 am, sure there's less of a wait unless it's a day, several new donors decide to show up

but my plasma center seems to put entry level or those straight out of phleb school in the very early morning hours and my plasma center has a lot of turn around in terms of people leaving for whatever reason

the last several times, the phlebs looked very unsure of themselves and stuck me hard and left bruises where i had to take a week off before donating

will going later in the day as in the afternoon...will that have a better chance of avoiding inexperienced fresh out of phleb. school / entry level phlebs that might accidentally pin to strong, make mistakes, etc?

im very kind to all the phlebs and make small talk, but i need to donate long term and several times the very very young phlebs were like tracing my arm for a long time and there was a slow return or whaever that's called that needs to re-insert the needle or it will just stay stuck or slow

if so, what time in the afternoon has *more experienced phlebs* who although maybe a hemotoma can occur with even the most experienced phlelbs..., there's less of a chance with experienced phlebs of that happening

thanks in advance....

TIA

My intuition was correct on why I wanted to use the right arm 😒 They had to stick my right arm ANYWAY to return the RBC’s. Ugh. How effing annoying…

I see and hear about people switching centers with what seems to be a pretty decent frequency... am I missing something? Or is this coincidence more than practice?

CORRECTION: Sixth donation I completely forgot me, and my bf already did the 5 donations in 30-day promotion.

Hello, first I'm glad I found this subreddit. Tbh, I joined a kinda dead subreddit earlier for plasma before finding this one but didn't want to post yet.

Does CSL usually pay you way less than $100 for your fifth donation? Is there a reason why it would be less after proving your loyalty? lmao.

Do codes help at all to earn more?

Disclaimer/background: I remember seeing return donor fees that were at least $30/$50 just for coming back at my center. I'm asking because my boyfriend, who is 200 lbs, was literally paid $40 for his fifth donation. I'm 110 lbs myself and lowkey, scared I'd get paid $20, honestly.

Question for you all. I have about 150 donations over the last few years. I am not good about drinking water, so often I don't drink as much water and other hydrating fluids as I should be. Normally, my hematocrit sits around 46 and 52.

Several times over the years I will decide I am going to be more responsible and drink a bunch of water and give myself a smoother donation experience, and drink 2 or 3 times my normal amount of water the day before/day of. It usually backfires.

For example, on Monday I drank over 100oz of water in preparation for my donation Tuesday. I got in, BP, temp, and HR were great, but my hematocrit was 58. I didn't drink any water yesterday, and only 16oz this morning and I went in, and my hematocrit was 52.

Why does my level drop when I am dehydrated? If I force myself to drink water more throughout the week will my levels eventually drop? I am honestly very confused.

I have started a nonprofit for Plasma Donors, the Plasma Donors Association. What activities or benefits would donors want from the association. I was thinking it would be good to rate centers and provide information on how much each center pays for donations. Anything else?

I really hope that I pass by the 17th because honestly my pulse always go up whenever the cuff reinflates and I wasn't even ready when they did it. I was still adjusting myself. So I think the sudden movement and cuff reinflating both times really kept me from passing. Last week the cuff reinflated both times too. I didn't pass the first time last week but the second time I did. This time when the cuff reinflated both times I didn't pass either one. What do I do to keep it from reinflating everytime? The first time I didn't even move and it still reinflated. The second time I only did in the beginning because the lady started it when I was getting myself situated and she saw I wasn't ready and getting situated still and still put the machine on. I even said before it happened to her I needed a few seconds because I was adjusting my hand because I had my hand in a fist and thought it wouldn't work with it being in a tight fist.

I’ve been donating twice weekly for almost 6 months so far. As a new donor I made around $700 the first month, now I make $480 monthly from donating. Also work full time. I eat a rhealthy diet 6 days out of the week, and take some supplements, but do allow myself a little bit of a cheat day once a week. I feel no changes in my health this far, but I do have scarring where they poke my arm. I transfer the $120 weekly to a savings account with high APY. My goal is to keep this going for 3 years so I can save up enough to buy a car and have some left over for insurance. all the being said, has anyone donated without missing a week for years and have you felt any effects to your health?

I'm going a little nuts here This is my 3rd time I've got an elevated beta globulin. I'm hydrating properly, and I haven't felt sick. One more bad test and I'm deferred Anyone ever find out why they were failing their SPEs?

As you could see for the 42 dollar payment, the machine stopped at 922 ml and I only got payed half. For the 40 dollar payment I gave the full 1000 ml. I was expecting 80 bucks but only got 40. Why is that?

First time I donated I mentioned my sister was staying with me, I mentioned she was cured of Hep C in the past.

They said that was fine. I like to be thorough, so on donation 2 I mentioned it again. They said I never mentioned this the first time(I did, I even talked to staff about it) and deferred me indefinitely.

I could use some extra money rn, things have been tight.

My sister hasn't been staying with me for awhile now, I just dunno what I should do.

I seriously do not understand how I randomly tested positive for ATYA, meanwhile I’ve been donating for years consistently and have never had an issue.

I’m not pregnant.
I have not been pregnant for over a decade.
I’ve never had a blood transfusion.
I haven’t had anyone’s blood on me in several years. (My own kids after they got hurt)
I’ve never had an STD.
I recently had a full blood panel done with my PCP for unrelated reasons.
I tested negative for absolutely everything else on the panel at Octapharma.
I was at BioLife for years and underwent their testing a few months ago again, all clear.

So how the heck did this happen?
It makes no sense. Someone explain it to me like I’m 5.
I rely on this income to have room to breathe and I’m trying to not freak out.

Does this mean I’m now on the national permanent deferral list?
Can I just go back to Bio since I hadn’t had any issues there as of a few weeks ago?
Do I have to tell them I was at Octapharma for 3 donations before they permanently deferred me?

So I got a coupon a ways back for $700 for 8 donations and missed out and been waiting for it to come back.

I just passed two years lapsed for biolife and they sent me a $700 one again finally, but its for a center I dont live near anymore. Lame.

Will I just be a new donor at my local biolife anyways since I just passed 2 years? Is $700 about the max (so cal) I can hope for?

I don't really want to go back to donating plasma because it takes a huge toll on my body and my blood pressure is often too low. I want to empty out all the funds in my BioLife card to move them to my bank account (not sure what the best way to do this is, i just withdrew $200 in cash the other day but got charged $2 for having to view the balance before withdrawing, which i viewed twice but only withdrew once since i didn't know it would charge me no matter what even at a moneypass ATM).

I now have $498 remaining on my card, what is the best way to get this to my bank account? Should I do the direct transfer through the account and routing number (which says it'll only charge a fee if I transfer less than $300 at a time, but doesn't say it will charge a fee for numbers above that). I do have a fear that this method might have a technological error that causes the money to straight up disappear into the void, so please share your experiences if you did this (how much you transferred to which bank, and what the fee was).

Or should I keep withdrawing cash at the moneypass ATM? It only allows multiples of 20 dollar bills with a limit of taking out $200 each time, so some money would stay stuck in my card at the very end.

I also read that there would be a Card Maintenance fee of $3.00 per month:
- "Card Maintenance Fee: Subject to applicable law, a monthly maintenance fee will be charged to your Card each month, starting on the sixth month after the issuance of the initial Card (and regardless of whether any replacement Card is issued). However, the monthly maintenance fee will not be charged in a month if: (1) money has been added to your Card in the preceding 90 days, or (2) your Card has been used to make a purchase in the preceding 90 days."

A separate document also says "Card Maintenance Fee: This fee does not apply if the account balance is $0.00"

However, what happens if there is some unknown mystery fee that they charge me for using an ATM or transfer service that makes the balance of the card go negative, rather than $0.00?

Would that $3.00 a month fee continue to add on every month for the rest of my life and the company would issue me a bill to pay them back that amount?

I need help figuring out how to make the card go exactly to $0.00 from starting of $498 to prevent this, thank you. Sorry if this is confusing but I'm sure there are others probably wondering the same and I do appreciate you taking the time to read this and help if you got here.

Scheduled my appointment for 9AM tomorrow after receiving info on new donor promo with Biolife. I had bloodwork done two days ago - is there a chance this will get me deferred? It was just routine bloodwork (about 3 vials worth).

So I've been donating with my right arm only for years at octopharma because my left one is terrible for donating so I'm wondering is there another vein in my left arm they can use instead if the main one near the middle of my arm that I can tell them to try?

I’m in desperate need of money. I’ve debated the last couple of months about donating at CSL Plasma. The time is now lol 🤑. If anyone has any helpful suggestions for a first time donor including the best times to go. I know I’ll be there longer cause it’s my first time. I just want to see if there are any times I can go when there’s less people. Also does eating healthy & drinking plenty of water truly make a difference? Helpful comments are appreciated 🙏

At the end of June, I got sick (maybe a common cold or mild flu), and took two days off work. By the third day, I figured I'd already gone a few days without my regular zero calorie energy drink or coffee + espresso powder in the morning (many times having both if I felt particularly tired), so why not see how many days I could keep that up.

I'd say on any given day I was having 200mg - 500mg / day in the early morning.

It's been 3.5 months now without having energy drinks or coffee. Sometimes I'll have diet soda like if I go out to lunch, or a few diet sodas if they are on sale at the grocery store, but outside of that, I've largely kicked my caffeine habit.

In the first month or two, my heart rate didn't change much, but as you can see from my CSL data, toward the end of September, my measured HR starting dropping into the 50s! And I promise you, I didn't become a hardcore cardio doer, either; all I really do is lift weights.

So I asked Gemini AI about the timing. Please excuse the long quote, but I think this is important and might be helpful to some of you with elevated heart rates:

"While caffeine clears your bloodstream within a few days, reversing years of autonomic and neuroendocrine adaptations takes roughly 8 to 12 weeks.

Your heart rate dropping into the 50s reflects an underlying high level of cardiovascular fitness and strong vagal tone, but several long-term regulatory systems had to downshift before that baseline could fully emerge.

1. Adenosine Receptor Normalization

Caffeine is a competitive antagonist of adenosine receptors ($A_1$ and $A_{2A}$), which normally promote relaxation, vasodilation, and lower heart rate. After years of daily 200–500 mg intake, your brain and cardiovascular system significantly up-regulated these receptors to maintain balance against chronic stimulation. When you removed the caffeine, your body had to slowly re-absorb and normalize receptor density so natural adenosine signaling and parasympathetic regulation could stabilize.

2. HPA Axis and Basal Catecholamines

High-dose morning caffeine reliably spikes morning cortisol and circulating catecholamines (epinephrine and norepinephrine). Over years, this shifts baseline sympathetic nervous system tone upward. Post-cessation, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis often experiences an extended period of dysregulation—alternating between mild post-stimulant fatigue, compensatory stress responses, and fluctuating adrenal output—before your natural diurnal cortisol curve and sympathetic tone reset.

3. Restoration of Sleep Architecture

Even when consumed exclusively first thing in the morning, chronic high doses of caffeine measurably alter slow-wave (deep) sleep and sleep efficiency. Restoring true parasympathetic tone (vagal drive) depends heavily on sustained, high-quality deep sleep over weeks and months. As sleep micro-architecture normalized throughout July and August, your nocturnal and daytime parasympathetic signaling strengthened, allowing resting heart rate to drift down into true resting territory.

4. Vascular Tone and Baroreceptor Sensitivity

Caffeine exerts complex vascular effects, blunting local adenosine-mediated vasodilation and altering arterial stiffness and peripheral resistance. Long-term arterial compliance and baroreceptor sensitivity—the internal reflex mechanisms that continuously tune heart rate to maintain blood pressure—take weeks of steady-state hemodynamics to reset to an unmedicated baseline.

In short, the acute drug was gone in days, but your autonomic nervous system required an entire structural remodeling cycle to transition out of chronic sympathetic compensation and reveal your true parasympathetic baseline."