Anyone Donate Blood After PMR Treatment?

Posted by jimp @boo3, Oct 2 4:50pm

Have been off Prednisone for about 5 months and would like to donate blood again. O-negative and had been doing power reds. Though my doctor and rheumatologist have assured me that giving does not pose a risk of starting it up again I thought I would reach out. I have had two flu vaccinations. One during and one after the prednisone.

Any help appreciated

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) Support Group.

franklinlala | @franklinlala | Oct 7 10:41pm

Happy for you there were no issues this year with your flu shot. And congratulations on3.5 mg too. Creeping closer to the end game.

jimp | @boo3 | Oct 8 6:52am

There is definitely hope for PMR relating to flue/pneumonia shots. I received a flu shot while still on prednisone and pneumonia months after tapering to zero. Neither (other than a sore arm) caused a flare-up. I am going to receive flu shot next week (first one post finishing prednisone) nd hope results are the same. We’ll see.

tsesow | @tsesow | Oct 9 5:05pm

A friend who is a Family Practice MD made a comment to me about donating blood: "I wish my elderly patients would remember that it takes more time to recover from things like that".
I assume that most of us with PMR are elderly (or maybe just in denial).

Between Omeprezole (which helps with prednisone but makes it hard to absorb iron) and donating blood, I ended up iron-deficient and had to stop donating every 2 months.

Since you are O-Negative, I expect they will push pretty hard for you to come every 56 days.