I’m blood type O- (donated 29 times. Should have been more, but I’ve been in three different countries in my life.) I used to be catnip (or whatever) to mosquitoes, gnats, anything flying that bit and sucked blood. Fleas, too. Then I discovered water. Yeah, I knew water existed, but the realisation was that I never properly hydrated myself. These days I drink a lot of tea. China tea, so it’s weak and there is little diuretic effect. The vampires don’t bother me these days.
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Yes O negative is the unversal donor. In Blood Transfusion Centre terms, I am a “first responder”. If there’s any doubt, I go to the head of the queue, apparently. These days, the UK Blood transfusion service even texts you to let you know that your blood has been used, and in which hospital.
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I don’t know about that particular test, but the one we did in high school biology was pretty straightforward for testing ABO. It’s the RH factor (+/-) that was a bit finicky.
Edit for NickyG: I do not remember if a test failure was easy to identify.
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I didn’t donate at the Red Cross, just a community blood bank, and the pre-questionaire (sp?) reading material you need to review explicitly states that they test for Covid. And zika and others. But I guess they also play it safe and still tell you to call in if you get sick within a couple of weeks.
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Just a quick thought—you might see if you can locate a “compounding pharmacy” near you. As I understand it, compounding pharmacies actually prepare medications on the spot. They would (as I understand it) be able to put the necessary active ingredients into a plain (i.e., non-medicated to start with) creamy-type base. I’m not sure if it would require a Dr.’s Rx, but since calamine lotion is available without a prescription, it might be worth at least asking if they could make up a calamine cream for you.
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Erm, no. That’s AB+. That’s because there would be no reaction to A or B because obviously one already has those parts (factors? proteins?) in the blood. And O is just the absence of A or B. And RH factor is also either the presence or absence of something that ones body might react to.
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Are you sure the yellow is the toxin and not just plasma? That’s what seeps out of a scab too, so it might be that the bite is weeping plasma. Maybe plus a little toxin, but I’d think that there’s not nearly that much toxin.
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Yikes–sorry!
Thanks for the
idea!
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Well, it’s a tiny yellow spot, right where the stinger went in, so we assumed 'twas the toxin. They sure heal up quickly after the bicarb/baking soda treatment.
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Would be interesting to track how long his immunity holds up.
I keep reading about immunity for coronoviruses not lasting very long (months not years).
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I’m sure he’s keeping track! O_O
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sorry for the late reply, the way the $9 test cards work is super simple, instead of the old-school way where you have to manually apply three different liquid reagents they figured out how to dry the chemical onto a card semi-permanently
then you activate it with a drop of water and then you apply your blood, first spot for A reaction, second for B and third for +/- (D)
here’s their instruction video, very clear
and here’s how to read the results, see page 2
https://www.eldoncard.com/getfile.aspx?f=75257
I’d say as long as the kit isn’t expired and never was overheated/cooled and it’s done exactly as described it’s probably very accurate. There are however some rare blood types that this kit would completely miss and give false results (google bombay blood type)
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This sucks.
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I mean, I shouldn’t really complain. I’m a straight white guy in his early 40s so I’m at a lower risk for almost everything wrong with society right now compared to most people. Can’t win 'em all I guess.
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Yah. My Dad’s 84 and diabetic and Type A+, so while I’ll probably be okay… but yeah.
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Yeah, that’s why my wife gets called on as soon as she’s available to donate again. They actually pumped her full of saline one time so they could get another pint. She was still dizzy that whole afternoon, but she was glad to help. I love that woman.
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Rock on, thank you!
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You and your hardware store adventures! 
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Yeah I just love hanging around in the Bunnings car park. In the long run, blanket testing will do if a treatment doesn’t come along.
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