Hope you don’t mind me jumping in here a bit. But wanted to share that when I had directed donor blood, it was not all from my family. Both my parents and one sister could not donate blood (they didn’t meet the acceptible requirements to donate), and my one other sister could donate red cells that I could use, but not platelets. I tried her platelets, and they did nothing for me. Zip. So most of my directed donor blood came from friends. Basically, they have to know it advance that you need someone to donate “regularly.” Find as many people as possible to see if their blood works well with you. It’s good to find as many as possible so the burden isn’t only on one person. I had 6 regular plt donors, so since I used them once a week, they could rotate and donate about once a month. Don’t have all your donors go it together. Stagger them out since blood has a shelf-life. More donors helps so that they have someone to cover in case one is sick and can’t donate (they won’t allow you to if you have a temperature). If someone wants to go on vacation, there are others to cover in their absense, etc. Keep in mind that they only allow red cell donations every 2 months, so gauge how often you need reds and how many units to figure out how many people need to donate each month.
Hope this helps.
Marla
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