Who's done self phlebotomy? Need tips

What do you want to know?
What gauge needle is good, do I need an 18? Or can I use a 21g? Do I need tubing or can/will it just drain from the needle to a measuring cup, maybe a place to buy a kit to do it? Idk any more info pertaining to self phlebotomy would be appreciated.
 
What gauge needle is good, do I need an 18? Or can I use a 21g? Do I need tubing or can/will it just drain from the needle to a measuring cup, maybe a place to buy a kit to do it? Idk any more info pertaining to self phlebotomy would be appreciated.

21g won't work. I've always used 18g because I didn't know where to get 16g until recently. 18g works, it's just slow. I just pull the plunger out of a pin and use that aimed into a measuring cup. Used tubing the first few times and decided it was unnecessarily complicated. Make sure to have someone around at least the first few times, it can make you lightheaded.
 
What gauge needle is good, do I need an 18? Or can I use a 21g? Do I need tubing or can/will it just drain from the needle to a measuring cup, maybe a place to buy a kit to do it? Idk any more info pertaining to self phlebotomy would be appreciated.

21g won't work. I've always used 18g because I didn't know where to get 16g until recently. 18g works, it's just slow. I just pull the plunger out of a pin and use that aimed into a measuring cup. Used tubing the first few times and decided it was unnecessarily complicated. Make sure to have someone around at least the first few times, it can make you lightheaded.

Teruflex Blood Collection Bag - 600 mL - Each/1 - 1BBD606A

edit: sorry Perrin, I just reread where you found the 16g
 
What gauge needle is good, do I need an 18? Or can I use a 21g? Do I need tubing or can/will it just drain from the needle to a measuring cup, maybe a place to buy a kit to do it? Idk any more info pertaining to self phlebotomy would be appreciated.
Bro, you're Canadian go to the doctor. Tell them you need one done and you will get a referral...
 
I draw off a liter every 6 weeks.

19g butterfly, angled and height adjustable arm rest to provide a solid place to keep my arm from bending or moving.

You can use a peristalic pump like I do, or you could use the butterfly needle with the end of the bf held by 12" forceps(gorilla taped to the top of the arm rest) attached to a 40-60ml syringe and have someone draw off the blood. I can do either without any help from anyone. The blood is dumped into a small container lined with a small trashbag and half filled with kitty liter(clay) to absorb the blood and allow it to clot.

I use a tactical tourniquet for ease and more control over the pressure.

When I'm done drawing off the blood I fill one 10ml edta tube and let it settle in a vertical position for 3 days to see what my hct is. Once the plasma is crystal clear and a buffy coat has settle on top of the red cells you can read your hct using a mm ruler.

I can go into a lot more detail.

If I don't draw off blood every few months my hct will go up to 70% with all the side effects that come along with that. My hct is too high to donate blood so I'm stuck doing this myself and I prefer having full control as no blood bank will allow you to remove as much blood as I remove in one setting and at this frequency.

Your size and muscle mass will inform you as to your blood volume. At 6'2" 245lbs I have more blood then someone who's 5'5" 165lbs. Or even an obese person that weighs much more with fat containing 10% of the blood volume that muscle has.

Frequent blood letters have to supplement with iron 10mg/day and B12/Folate to make sure they have their daily needs to produce more rbcs as your body has much greater demands for this. Production will continue no matter what you do, so you have to give your body the building blocks so they don't produce inferior rbcs(microcytic).

There is no way to stop this process, hepcidin controls and regulates iron absorption, AAS decreases hepcidin and allows more absorption of iron. It's a viscous cycle and maybe one day someone will figure out how to create exogenous aas that no longer causes secondary erythrocytosis.

One of the biggest risk of high hct is damage to the eyes from increased ocular pressure, it's something not brought up very often, but something that needs to be addressed especially as you age.
 
I draw off a liter every 6 weeks.

19g butterfly, angled and height adjustable arm rest to provide a solid place to keep my arm from bending or moving.

You can use a peristalic pump like I do, or you could use the butterfly needle with the end of the bf held by 12" forceps(gorilla taped to the top of the arm rest) attached to a 40-60ml syringe and have someone draw off the blood. I can do either without any help from anyone. The blood is dumped into a small container lined with a small trashbag and half filled with kitty liter(clay) to absorb the blood and allow it to clot.

I use a tactical tourniquet for ease and more control over the pressure.

When I'm done drawing off the blood I fill one 10ml edta tube and let it settle in a vertical position for 3 days to see what my hct is. Once the plasma is crystal clear and a buffy coat has settle on top of the red cells you can read your hct using a mm ruler.

I can go into a lot more detail.

If I don't draw off blood every few months my hct will go up to 70% with all the side effects that come along with that. My hct is too high to donate blood so I'm stuck doing this myself and I prefer having full control as no blood bank will allow you to remove as much blood as I remove in one setting and at this frequency.

Your size and muscle mass will inform you as to your blood volume. At 6'2" 245lbs I have more blood then someone who's 5'5" 165lbs. Or even an obese person that weighs much more with fat containing 10% of the blood volume that muscle has.

Frequent blood letters have to supplement with iron 10mg/day and B12/Folate to make sure they have their daily needs to produce more rbcs as your body has much greater demands for this. Production will continue no matter what you do, so you have to give your body the building blocks so they don't produce inferior rbcs(microcytic).

There is no way to stop this process, hepcidin controls and regulates iron absorption, AAS decreases hepcidin and allows more absorption of iron. It's a viscous cycle and maybe one day someone will figure out how to create exogenous aas that no longer causes secondary erythrocytosis.

One of the biggest risk of high hct is damage to the eyes from increased ocular pressure, it's something not brought up very often, but something that needs to be addressed especially as you age.

thank you very informative, really great post on the matter.
 
Blood Draw Kit K-Shield Advantage Blood Bag BK-64A Each/1

Keep the bag and flow tube beneath the arm. Keep the elbow slightly bent, and be patient. If flow stops it’s usually the needle alignment inside the vein (needle opening being up against the vein wall). Usually adjusting the angle of the elbow bend will get it going again.

This here is the correct answer. The needle is made just for this and even has an extra hole for extra blood flow.
 
Would never do this myself. Just seems like things could go horribly wrong and I wouldn't risk it
Worst thing to go wrong is you get some blood on something. It’s really quite easy to do, and is definitely needed if you running AAS, but cannot donate due to any number of reasons.
 
Worst thing to go wrong is you get some blood on something. It’s really quite easy to do, and is definitely needed if you running AAS, but cannot donate due to any number of reasons.

i would venture a little further out to say that the worst that could go wrong is that you pass out and your blood continues to drain.

That and maybe excessive or unnecessary draining that results in fucking up your body's iron balance.

Mitigating the risk of either simply requires a little common sense and some forward thinking and planning.
 
i would venture a little further out to say that the worst that could go wrong is that you pass out and your blood continues to drain.

That and maybe excessive or unnecessary draining that results in fucking up your body's iron balance.

Mitigating the risk of either simply requires a little common sense and some forward thinking and planning.
Yeah, don’t do this if you’re going to pass out on yourself :eek::p. Hopefully people would already know how they would react to this stuff. I’m all into watching surgeries and blood doesn’t bother me at all. When in doubt, have another person there.
 
i would venture a little further out to say that the worst that could go wrong is that you pass out and your blood continues to drain.

That and maybe excessive or unnecessary draining that results in fucking up your body's iron balance.

Mitigating the risk of either simply requires a little common sense and some forward thinking and planning.

You are 100 times more likely to clot and not drain enough than to pass out and drain too much - indeed, I have never even heard of this happening. The opposite, heard so many times, even in this thread.
 
Drawing off lots of blood at one time is very euphoric. I love to go for that extra 2-300mls just to get good and emptied out. At about 1 liter you get a little light headed, tingly, at about 1300mls it's almost like your ready for a nap your so mellow, it feels nice.

As for iron balance, there is none. Your Ferritin levels will decrease, you will have to daily supplement with iron.

You really can't measure yourself as a normal person because you aren't normal once you've got a hct for 65%. Normal values don't mean anything at that point, you just need to get that blood out of your body, you are damaging your circulatory system as your heart is force to push sludge through your arteries, capillaries and veins.
 
Will they? My family doctor is kind of an ass. Think a walk in would do it?
Yes, just go to a walk in and say you have that disease that increases your red blood cell count, polycythemia vera. Are you unable to go to Canadian Blood Services and dontate? If you have previous blood work of high hct and rbc show the walk in doctor that. Or if they won't send you for a phlebotomy, tell them to test your RBC and HCT, and there you have proof. Get them to set you up for one every 2 months or something. They can do that. That's how mine is setup. I just call and book a time. I don't know where you are in Canada, but I know Ontario charges you for bloodwork, don't they? We have it good out west here.
 
Yes, just go to a walk in and say you have that disease that increases your red blood cell count, polycythemia vera. Are you unable to go to Canadian Blood Services and dontate? If you have previous blood work of high hct and rbc show the walk in doctor that. Or if they won't send you for a phlebotomy, tell them to test your RBC and HCT, and there you have proof. Get them to set you up for one every 2 months or something. They can do that. That's how mine is setup. I just call and book a time. I don't know where you are in Canada, but I know Ontario charges you for bloodwork, don't they? We have it good out west here.
Ontario doesn’t charge you for bloodwork that I know of, I think we all have the same health care system being Canadian. Thank you I’ll do this this week.
 
Back
Top