Anemia

[radio_activity]

Hello. My name is Gilbert. 23 years of age, male. I've been going to a plasma center for the past 3 weeks, 2 times a week to donate plasma. I was never told anything about low RBC count or iron deficiency. After a couple of the plasma visitations, I would feel a numb feeling run across my mouth and a spurt of heat fill within my cul-de-sac. I thought nothing of it but now I've been feeling dizzy, a constant headache on the left hemisphere of my head, neck pain (swollen) but I'm not sure what is. Can anemia cause this due to the lack of oxygen flowing throughout my body? I don't have insurance so I'm afraid of going to the doctor but for the most part, I was healthy. I've read it's not good to get too physical if you're anemic due to the fact that your body has to work harder and produce the oxygen it's not normally getting. I also may suspect heart disease but I don't know how frequent you can get it. I have a bad habit of biting the inside of my mouth and sometimes it bleeds. Is that a way of getting heart disease? Anyhow, any info or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. At this time, I've put myself under Centrum vitamin pills and drinking plenty of water and getting plenty of rest since I don't have a job right now, just finished college. Again, thanks.

Gilbert

[OtterMom]

When you donate plasma are they calleing it aphoresis? If you're donating plasma only, they should be taking out the blood, seperating out the red blood cells from the plasma and reinfusing the cells back. This wont cause anemia since you're getting the cells back. My guess is that they are replacing the plasma volume with a solution that has thrown off your electrolyte balance causing the headaches, etc. Low blood volume (volemia) will cause the symptoms too. Make sure to drink LOTS of water and avoid rigorous exercise or activity where you'll tend to lose even more electrolytes in sweat.