Effects of repeated, long-term blood donation

[banespawn]

I'm writing a fantasy novel in which a character has a curse that makes his blood the source of all magic. This curse only afflicts one person at a time. When that person dies, someone else inherits the curse. This has been going on for a thousand years and the current cursed individual has been held prisoner for 15 years, during which time his

Comments

[naamah_darling]

You might try googling "pernicious anemia" or "pernicious blood loss anemia," if you have not already.

I had anemia due to constant blood loss when I was a teenager, for about a year and a half, before I finally asked for help, and it was not fun at all. Even when I had enough red blood cells by number, which wasn't usually, my body had been fighting so hard to make enough that they were small and thus not as capable of doing their jobs.

I was often cold, so very cold, and often I craved food, especially meat and bone marrow and I chewed on ice all the time, but I wasn't often hungry, if you can see the difference. And I was tired. Oh, God, I was so tired. When I was awake I was alert enough, but once in a while I would just wilt suddenly and fall asleep in class, like I'd just run out of gas. I slept for ten hours a night. I slept for two hours after coming home from school. I napped in math class every day, before lunch, when my energy was at its lowest. I was weaker than I should've been. I was a strong girl, and in

[naamah_darling]

And I should say, it does depend on how much they take, and how often, but even a deficit of only a little, if it is constant, will result in a decrease in quality of the blood cells.

And that someone who was tired, had no endurance, slept a lot, and was depressed would sure as hell be a lot more manageable than someone who wasn't. So, depending on your scenario, keeping him slightly anemic might suit their ends pretty well.

[smillaraaq]

Seconding all of this. I had a pretty bad runin with anemia due to chronic heavy bleeding a couple years ago and those were my symptoms to a tee. I didn't *hurt* anywhere, outside of the occasional menstrual cramps, but I was horribly fatigued and weak all the time, no matter how much rest I got. I was used to taking long walks every day, but when the anemia was at its worst even just walking on level paved ground to the mailbox on the corner of my block felt like struggling uphill through deep snow, it took that much effort and left me so wrung out; I'd have to stop periodically to stand still and rest for a few breaths, just to try to muster up enough strength and willpower to walk a little further. Have you ever had a bout of the flu that was so severe that just getting out of bed to walk to the bathroom or kitchen felt like an exhausting effort? It was a lot like that, just without the deep body aches that you get with the flu. Weak, chilled, occasionally dizzy or light-headed, weird cravings and pica but almost no appetite, and

[naamah_darling]

So much sympathy, here.

[smillaraaq]

Thanks, and same back to you.

[sidheblessed]

I've lived with anaemia and this describes it very well. For me, it was just this bone-weary fatigue that permeated every aspect of my life. I couldn't concentrate in school, I was always hungry, I slept for ten hours a night and could never get out of bed in the morning. I would also get this horrific dizzy spells where it seemed the whole world was spinning. It was literally like when you were a kid and spun around a lot and then tried to walk in a straight line. Except I'd have been just standing there when I started to get that "Stop the world, I want to get off!" feeling.

Before anaemia, I was slim, reasonably fit and healthy. After anaemia, I was fat, depressed and exhausted. I just wanted to take to my bed and sleep forever.

[smillaraaq]

Eeek, yeah, the world-spinning-around dizzy spells I had were so scary. They'd hit so randomly and didn't seem to be triggered by anything -- I could even just be sitting around or lying down, which is what I mostly did all day because even walking across the room was so much goddamn effort, and the spinnyness would just hit out of the blue for no obvious reason. It felt like I almost needed seat belts on my bed and chairs just so it wouldn't feel like I was going to fall off the face of the earth when everything started to tilt and whirl around.