Quoted from C_sharp

I wrote my earlier response saying you might not be an A before reading the message with this note.

Clumping on the first dot would indicate of A or AB.

If you also react (clump/agglutinate) on the second dot, you would be AB.

If you did not get enough blood on the dot you may not see any agglutination.

But if you can see some clumping on a dot, you have enough blood and the blood is reacting and therefore should contain the indicated antigen.

I couldn't get enough blood on the card for the second dot to tell. I've never heard of anyone in my family being AB though, reckon I'm probably an A but will find out for sure. Curiouser and curioser!

What about trying the earlobe ( you´ll need help )
My daughter was freaking out when I wanted to test her( when she was 5   fromthe finger.
so I used blood from the ear- they often do that on the hospitals as well.

my ears are very sensitive   so I don't fancy the idea of trying to get blood from there! next time I do the test I'll just have to make sure I get enough blood from my finger.

Quoted from Sulis

my ears are very sensitive   so I don't fancy the idea of trying to get blood from there! next time I do the test I'll just have to make sure I get enough blood from my finger.

Well my now 17 yo daughter actually said it was less painfull in ear  than in finger ....
but the best part was that it was easy to get the blod out.
The reason why the use it with kids on hospitals.

this is so interesting, sulis... i hope you are successful on your next go around.

After reading this whole thread, i was going to mention that you could be an AB. My dad and brother are AB, as are a number of nieces and nephews... and they all clot like nobody's business! When my brother and i were still donating blood together, he had to drink 2 full litres of water within a couple of hours of going in to make sure that he would bleed properly.

ABs are rare, sure, but it's not a zero chance, so keep the options open!

As for getting yourself to bleed for the test... when the lancet broke on the test that i did on my honey, we ended up breaking it open, cleaned it with alcohol and just stabbed! Ended up drawing the blood from his arm instead of fingers, he bleed better that way. good luck.

assume you are type B i nthe mean time.

probably not type O lol

arg! I had long cherished the idea that I was type O, anyway I ordered another test kit and I should get it tomorrow, third time's the charm I hope!

I will be amazed if I am AB, watch this space.....

I took a food sensitivity test a few months ago and had to collect close to a tsp worth of blood. There was no way on the first try. On the second one, still no luck so I had to get another kit. On that kit, I ran around the yard first, did some jumping jacks to get the blood flowing and instead of pricking the meaty part of the finger pad, I pricked off to the side (of my middle finger, of the hand I use most). This helped (me) tremendously.

I might try that area of my finger Gardengirl. We have had cold weather here and I have been cold all week, to the point where my rings are almost falling off my fingers so I need all the tips I can get!

Quoted from Sulis

Thanks for the suggestions guys   nice to know I'm not the only one who struggled with those damn lancets! Guess it'll have to be third time lucky with another one of those home kits although I might try slicing a finger open with a razor to ensure enough blood for the test this time  

I just typed my son's girlfriend last week. You have to run your hand under warm water, as hot as you can stand it for a couple of minutes and then massage the finger pushing the blood upward to the tip. Then you use the lancet on the side of the tip. I got a nice blood supply out of her doing that. 3 big drops. I'm getting better at this  

Also, try drinking several glasses of water with lemon juice in it before doing the  test (over a period of several hours.) Lemon juice can thin the blood. I did this the second time i donated blood last year, and I had a much easier time with that donation than with my first (when my blood didn't flow well and it took a VERY long time to fill the bag.)

My kit has arrived. I will be doing the test tomorrow as this week it's been cold at night and I just know I won't get any blood so I'm going to do it after a gym session.

Quoted from Sulis

My kit has arrived. I will be doing the test tomorrow as this week it's been cold at night and I just know I won't get any blood so I'm going to do it after a gym session.

Great idea, and take a picture and post the link; perhaps we can help you that way?

Well I jumped around like a loony to get my circulation going, drank enough lemon water to float the Titanic and butchered my finger but the test is finally done and..... it looks like I'm an A+

here's the very first test I did:


and here's the test I did tonight: (lots more blood this time)


That means that following the BTD for A's is going to be a big challenge for me as I hate tofu and fish and I can't eat lentils or beans as they give me irritable bowel type symptoms. If I just eat veggies, within half an hour my tummy is growling.

Gonna be tough but I have to do something to improve my health before I turn 50 in a few years time. Currently I am very run down and my immune system has taken a big hit this winter as I have had whooping cough and have caught bug after bug.

I have low energy and iron levels and am peri-menopausal to boot. Sounds horrible doesn't it? but I am determined to overcome these obstacles and improve my health. If I lose some weight along the way, great but my primary concern is to get my mojo back.

I'm open to all tips and suggestions

Hi Sulis - Welcome to A+    Yes, for a lot of people it is quite a challenge at first to change to the type A foods. But if you are a secretor, which about 80% of people are (the test should be a lot easier for you, all you have to do is spit ) you will have all kinds of breads and pasta, and there are some cheeses available for A's as well. What you also may find after some experimenting, is that the combination of certain foods may have been the cause of your discomfort, and when you start to eat foods in various different combinations, your discomfort may not appear.
     For most people, the easiest way to work into this new way of eating is not to worry so much about the "Beneficials", but to reduce your consumption of "Avoids". It may seem less overhwelming, and please don't feel that you have to make all the changes overnight - that would be enough to scare anybody away!
     You'll get the hang of it, and as soon as you start to feel changes - for most people, feeling better is within just a few days!!! - you'll feel the early challenges of swapping out foods is so well worth the effort, you'll forget all about the difficulties.

Quoted from Sulis

it looks like I'm an A+

That means that following the BTD for A's is going to be a big challenge for me as I hate tofu and fish and I can't eat lentils or beans as they give me irritable bowel type symptoms. If I just eat veggies, within half an hour my tummy is growling.

You will still be able to eat turkey and possibly chicken for protein.  My DD makes a dish of ground turkey, black beans, mozzarella cheese, ginger, garlic and cumin.  Puts this on a bed of lettuce and tops with plain yogurt and avocado.

You may need to add ginger to beans (at least for a while) to aid digestion while the gut flora shifts to be able to handle them properly.  I always have had a problem with legumes if I take a while between eating them.

Your tastes can change as you start eating more compliant foods and find that you really don't feel that good when you eat avoids...  Although, I am still waiting for that with my DD...  She will only eat tuna in macaroni and cheese - we use rice pasta, rice flour for the white sauce base and add mozzarella cheese and the tuna.

Yup, that looks like A+ to me! From the first test, I couldn't tell if you were A+ or AB+, and I'd already suspected you were one of those two types simply  because you had trouble getting enough blood to flow for the test (Bs and Os tend to have thinner blood.)

I'd definitely reccomend finding out your secretor status. If you end up being a nonnie, then you won't have so much soy as superfoods, and I think A nonnies also get lamb.

Your tastes will probably change within a few weeks of eating right, if not sooner. My daughter (type O) used to be a vegetarian; when she found out she was an O, she decided to eat beef again. At first, she treated it like medicine "I don't like it and it grosses me out but I know it's good for me so I'll eat it." After eating it a few times, she said that the cooked meat was appetizing, but the smell of raw meat and when it first starts cooking nauseated her, so she asked me to cook it while she was out and have it ready to eat by the time she came home. Then one day either she came home early or (more likely) I got dinner started late, and the meat was still cooking when she came home, yet she found it appetizing.

I'm certainly not suggesting that you eat beef-  but I'm sharing the story to show how tastes can change over time. You may feel that way about lentils or tofu.

I have a secretor test kit ready to go and will be sending it off for testing within the week God I hope I'm a nonnie as I love lamb and eat it about twice a week currently. I love turkey and chicken too so no problems there.

I will start by not eating any avoid foods and getting more fresh veggies into my diet, now that spring is here I find I'm craving salads. I don't do so well on wheat and grains though as they can bloat me.  I need to look at getting some supplements as well.

Thanks for all your help guys!