Red Cross donations

Hey, before surgery i was a regular blood donor. I am 4 months out but wonder - is it safe for me to donate? This is a question i never thought to ask my dr. office.
Thoughts??

 If your hemoglobin and hematocrit levels are within the normal range, I see no reason why you cannot donate blood. Mine are chronically low (and were low before RNY) so I'm out of the donor pool.

 I've also never donated blood but I am a horrible stick and was just told don't even try.   My question actually is can we still be a bone marrow donor?  I signed up over a year ago prior to surgery but didn't think to ask if my surgery takes me out of that. 

 You can absolutely donate bone marrow.

I had the same question around the holidays when I was a few months out. I decided to wait until after I get my first set of labs done which will be next week at 6 mos post-op.

My discharge papers said not to donate for 1 full year.  And even then, I was told to watch my lab levels before attempting to donate.

 I would not recommend it unless you have visited your doctor very recently and have full lab results.  H&H is done when you donate, but unless you know your actual iron level and % saturation as well it's not a very good indicator of anemia.  Talk to your surgeon about it and get his thoughts of course.

You can donate plasma at any time though.