u/Sara630

My last BioLife donation was July 3, when I had a reaction from dehydration. After that, I intentionally took two weeks off because I felt burned out from donating twice a week. They were offering $117 both weeks, and while I could’ve used the money, I decided my body needed the break.
I planned to return after two weeks, but then I got sick. During that time, BioLife lowered my offer to $102. By early August, I finally felt ready to return after a month off—only to receive an offer for $92. I’ve never been offered under $100 since I started donating in January 2025.
I considered going back to CSL because their regular rate was $115, plus they offered me an extra $55 on my first donation back. It wasn’t a return bonus since it hadn’t been six months, just an extra incentive. Unfortunately, I then developed the worst double ear infection I’ve had in my 43 years. Between the antibiotics, steroids, pain medication, swelling, and pain, donating wasn’t possible.
Today is finally my first day without pain or swelling, although I’m still partially deaf. I’ve been off medication since Sunday and plan to start donating again next week once I feel completely better. The CSL offer expired Sunday, but hopefully they’ll send another.
Meanwhile, BioLife’s offer dropped again to $90. Are they lowering my payment because I haven’t donated recently, or are everyone’s rates this low right now? You’d think they would offer more to encourage people to return. Does BioLife have a minimum rate, and how much lower can it go? I know people call it “free money,” but donating still takes time and can be hard on your body.

So their ad on fb got me and I signed up for the free trial. I didn’t know only fitness is available on the trial. I’m more interested in beauty and self care. So I would have to upgrade. Ok fine. But before I do that I wanted to see an estimate or an approximate of credits needed for each service. Apparently that’s not possible. I chatted with their AI tool and they too said they can’t give me that info because the amount of credits needed can change based on availability, location, ect. Which ok I’m fine with that but I’d still like to know a range for the amount of credits needed. I’m not doing a full blown sign up only to find out you need a ridiculous amount of credits for a service. Then they are gonna say upgrade for even more credits. I’d like to know how many credits I need for a service.

If you get food or drinks from a restaurant that are free, either from like a promotional deal, birthday coupon, rewards for points, ect, and your food or drink is made incorrectly on the fault of the restaurant, do you feel it's allowed to say something and have them remake it or whatever they have to do?
Note- this does not include ingredients left out for allergies. I'm talking like they put strawberry ice cream in your shake instead of chocolate. Or your pizza has pepperoni on it when you ordered it without. Basically modifications related to preference, like you hate coconut or something. Would your answer change depending on if an ingredient was missing you asked for, or there was an ingredient you didn't want? Completely free item.

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Is anyone having issues yesterday/today with text messages? If I claim a new offer I’m able to receive the message and message back. But other offers are not working. Like if I send “offer” nothing happens. I even tried to send 2 receipts today and no response, not showing up as payment pending. I thought maybe it was my phone. I’ve done a soft reset several times. Deleted the app and reinstalled. Then I thought it’s my account. Like did I get banned for some reason? If I did idk why. But then I’m still able to log in on the app and on the website, plus like I said I can get new offers texted to me that I claim however my response to those new offers don’t go through either. I’m not sure what’s going on

I’ve been sick for a few days and haven’t been online much. I just heard about the James situation on another sub. Is it just me or does this seem surprising that it’s James and not Alex? I feel like this is some big red behavior l. I know it’s summer but wasn’t James in college? At a cooking school? Idk but I didn’t see that coming at all. Was it the car he got for his birthday? Was it solo activities or was it with another person? I also just saw Alex said he doesn’t care about James?

I saw a post here mentioning pay the borrow with your borrow. I couldn’t comment because it’s locked. Can someone explain to me how this works and what do you get out of it? Like what’s the benefit of it

I have my 2 donation appointments this week on Tuesday and Thursday. I have to get some bloodwork done and I was going to go tomorrow on Monday. It’s quite a few vials. Would that hurt my donation on Tuesday? Or should I wait until the end of the week when both are done?

Are there boots available for the new 64oz big boys? I was looking on Amazon and found some for 64 oz but they all mentioned other brands so I’m not sure if they would work. I got mine in sandy shores so if anyone has a good color recommendations for a boot to match let me know. Sometimes it’s hard to really tell the true color of the boot online to match until you get it in person

I was deferred today for the first time at BioLife during vitals. She said my iron was too high by 3 points. Which I’m guessing is hematocrit, and she just said iron? Either way it was high by 3 points. She said drink a lot more water today which I did. Avoid fried food, salty food and there may have been a couple other things but I can’t remember. Is 3 points a lot to be over? She said I can come back tomorrow so I made an appointment but it it possible to get it back down by tomorrow or should I wait until maybe Friday?

Ok since they have been back my husband got one about a week ago maybe two. Said it was horrible. Said nothing like the original. The sauce was off. I didn’t see it so idk what he was talking about and he complains a lot so I just said oh ok wow that sucks.

This past weekend we were out running errands and passed the bell and I said go back I want to try an enchirito. Different location to his last one. I do the mobile order I add extra cheese to mine ( more on that in a minute). He decides he wants one. I said you didn’t like it so why get another one. Different location plus he got extra meat. Ok.

We get them. I had every intention of taking a picture of mine but well it was gone quick. I have never had a Taco Bell actually understand what extra cheese means. No I did not get 2 or 3 extra strands of cheese. This thing was covered in cheese. 20/10 for me. Will get again.

He said this one was ok.

Here is the problem. They use the red sauce, the same sauce as the bean burrito correct? He swears they used a different sauce when they originally had them. I also got them back then but I honestly can’t tell you what sauce it was. I was to focused on getting extra olives. So if you do know, was it the red sauce back then too? Or a different sauce?

Follow up question - taco sauce packets, mild ones in particular, are they the same thing as the red sauce? I dont like sauce like that so I don’t get those. And the Taco Bell taco sauce bottles in the grocery store. How close are those to the sauce packets?

When they say you need to be well hydrated it’s not a suggestion. It’s not to annoy you or inconvenience you or to make you live in the bathroom every hour to pee. Here is my story from today.

Today was my 60th donation. Not including today, I’ve had 57 donations with no issues, and 2 with minor inconvenience issues. So 59 not bad. 60th today, 👎🏼.

I had been hooked up started out fine. I was on 2nd cycle. On the draw, this sounds weird but it kind felt like the needle was vibrating in my arm for a couple seconds. I didn’t say anything cuz I thought that’s weird and I was imagining it. The return happens and that was fine. I was on the third draw. It started to hurt so they came to check. Felt my arm and adjusted and adjusted the flow. That quick it hurt instantly and o said so followed by I’m gonna throw up. She gave me the bag. I didn’t say anything not throw up but I did instantly become the most popular person in the center. I couldn’t move. I could see. I could hear but it sounded far away. I heard them calling for the vitals cart. My whole body went numb but also felt heavy and limp at the same time. I could talk but I could hear myself and I was talking as if I was drunk or high on some pain meds. I couldn’t hold my head up and it turned to the side. They told me to stay awake which I did. As this was happening they were doing the return of what was already taken. Blood pressure on the other arm. I slowly started to feel better. They gave me a bottle of water with an electrolyte packet. Nasty and warm but I was so thirsty I didn’t care. So they disconnected the needle. I was feeling almost normal again. The nurse walked me to her office. Gave me another electrolytes water and gold fish. I sat for 15 minutes and checked vitals again and everything was good so let me go.

Dehydrated. I thought I had enough water yesterday, throughout the night when I would wake up, and this morning before I went ( my appointment was at 8). Well apparently not.

Drink your water as if it’s your job and you get paid. I mean you do if you think about it. Drink it like it will give you super powers. If you think you have had enough. No you haven’t. Drink some more. I mean I’m
Not a medical professional so I’m not giving you health advice lol. I think you can actually drink too much water so don’t do that.

It’s not always your 1st, 2nd or even 10th donation where issues happen. It could be your 60th. But that’s my error. Not the center, not the employees, not the donation process. This is not to turn anyone off from donating. Just stay hydrated. And also eat.