Just wanted to give the Canadians a heads up, Canadian blood services declined our blood yesterday. We got back Saturday. As it turns out if you travel to Cancun you are fine to give blood, but if you go to any town outside of Cancun they will refuse you because that small town is not listed on their safe list. We went to Isla Mujeres on Steves booze cruise (which was great). Their logic is flawed because every small town is not listed in the safe list, but it is what it is. So now we can not donate blood for 1 year, (due to Malaria). So if someone in your family or you know counts on your blood or you have a rare blood type that Canadian blood services counts on, do not go on the booze cruise (sorry Steve) Of course I do not know the policies of other countries, so if this is an issue for you you might want to do some homework before you go. And yes I am fairly confident the alcohol was out of our system by then.
According the Red Cross, I have not been out of the country since the 1990's. I can't give up the blood bank as those days are the only ones of the year that I actually lose weight:daveandmo:
I was thinking to myself as I was reading your post "are you sure it wasn't because your blood smelled like 151 proof rum?"
I take blood for a living and yep if you go to Mexico twice a year you cannot donate. LOL Just not giving up my cancun trips for that even though I love to donate and help out.
I found this out several years ago. Cancun was fine, but going to Chitzen Itza somehow made my blood poisonous as far as the red cross was concerned. Couldn't donate for a year.
I am torn between two answers on this one... First: I am willing to take the risk I can't give blood Second: I don't have any to spare anyways (what is there is likely flammable after a trip to TTR as it is) All kidding aside, as silly as this may seem it is a good thing that the blood agencies are trying to keep the supply safe, not to mention delicious for all of the vampires out there!
We attended a blood drive in honor of our sister-in-law a couple of weeks ago, here in NJ. The Red Cross refused Suz and I because of our Cancun trips. They told us that we would have to go a full year without a Mexican trip before they would be interested in our blood. We told them if we went a full year without a Cancun trip, they wouldn't want us around them - we would be too miserable. Funny thing is - the part of Cancun we spend our vacation in is cleaner and more civilized than parts of the town we live in. Oh well... you do what you can. I could see not wanting our blood after a Cancun vacation because of the blood alcohol content - but malaria?
Since alcohol is a sterilant all we have to do is prove that we had our blood alcohol high enough to take care of anything that they might be worried about, I know we were there lol.
Donating Blood Yes..it is true I used to work for them..... Donate before you leave then you can have the time of your life. CBS is really gonna lose alot of doners because it used to be 6 months and now with it being a year and all the repeaters to Mexico, they will never be eligible to donate again..
It's the same in the UK too - they refused me after our first trip to Mexico. They are now so picky and the wait of over an hour to give despite having a booked appointment time has led me to give up trying to donate.
