#103 - Unclear Web Sites

It is very frustrating at times when you go to a web site for info and it is incorrect.  I have a head cold.  No fever. No bronchitis. Just a head cold.  I had an appointment to give blood, which I have done many times over the years.  I go to the Red Cross web site and look under colds/flu and here is what I find:

Wait if you have a fever or a productive cough (bringing up phlegm)
Wait if you do not feel well on the day of donation.
Wait until you have completed antibiotic treatment for sinus, throat or lung infection.

I had none of the above, so I leave work @ 2:35 to get to donation place by 3pm. I waited for about 25 minutes before getting into the cubicle with a nurse and the 50 question questionnaire about my life. Have you had hepatitis? No. Have you been in contact with someone who did? No. Have you had sexual contact with someone who had sexual contact with a male? No. And then I coughed. Is that a lingering cough? Well, no, not exactly, but I do have a head cold. Oh, then we can't take your blood today.  I explain the criteria on the web site.  Well, the web site is not right. We are concerned about the donor, not your blood infecting a recipient. I am fine, I tell them.  I just have a head cold.  No, no, we cannot run the risk of you getting dehydrated from giving your blood.  Dehydrated!?!?! I drank over a quart of water at work, which I do every day!  We're sorry.  So, am I, to have wasted your time, when if the web site had just said don't come if you have any type of cold, I wouldn't have come! Oh no, we don't mind.  Please help yourself to cookies and a drink and a soup mug which we are giving out to all donors today.  Now why in the hell would I take a soup mug when I didn't donate any blood, is beyond my comprehension, so after 45 minutes, I took a bottle of water and left, to reschedule a donation at a future date when I do not have a cold!