no blood for you!

I vaguely knew I was a problematic blood donor - when you travel outside the US they like you to wait a bit to see if you are carrying some horrible foreign disease. As it turns out, I was wrong about that rule - it's only malaria countries they are concerned about there - but I was right about not donating - I am forbidden, in fact, for life:

You are not eligible to donate if:
From January 1, 1980, through December 31, 1996, you spent (visited or lived) a cumulative time of 3 months or more, in the United Kingdom (UK)

that mad cow disease gets 'em every time! I'm glad gadling hooked me up with the red cross rules, or I wouldn't have known!

I know, I am the same way. I was really surprised when I went to donate (as I had done fairly regularly) and they turned me away. The funny thing is that I donated several times after I had come back from my semester in London, they instituted that rule in 1999. I am not sure which is scarier - that I may have some secret mad cow disease or that I may have passed it on in my infected blood for 3 years before they changed the rules and figured out that this could be dangerous. Guess it's time to start donating money to research on how mad cow disease secretly lives in people....

You should have asked. I would've told. (about the rules) I just did the research recently to see if I was OK to donate. Thankfully, I am -- no mad cow disease for me b/c I didn't get to Scotland until January 2007. Also, my journeys in Egypt didn't take me to any of the forbidden spots.

I can't believe three (four?) years spent in Egypt
is OK, but five months spent twelve years ago in the UK is not. Oh well - if it makes them feel better....