Blood donation considerations post stroke

I've been donating blood for 4 years now, 2 gallons or so now. Without knowing about the right way to choose, I luckily choose to use my good arm for the donation site. You need to be able to lay your arm flat, keep it still and squeeze a rubber ball every four seconds.   With the needle in your affected arm you wouldn't be able to cough or sneeze because it would involuntarily bend.  I have to make sure that  there is enough space on my left side so my left arm can stay there without falling off. I hate having to ask the staff to pick my arm up. Then at the end I have to ask them not to put on the red elastic tape to hold the cotton swab in place. Getting that off one handed is nigh impossible, my kitchen knives are not long enough to cut up the forearm. So now I just ask for the simple one stripe of paper tape which I scrape off with the mirror from the medicine chest.    Hopefully  your doctor and therapists have already counseled you on this.  This donating caught  my high blood pressure in time to get it treated. Over 180 and they don't allow you to donate. I'm O negative so a universal donor and very popular.  But I have to find a few more friends that are also O negative since that is the only blood I can get. I do take some crazy risks so I want to be prepared. My next risk will probably firing up my gas powered chainsaw, there are a few major trees down across my walking trails.