i want to give my soon to be husband a vial of my blood as a gift. what i want to know is will the blood 'go off' or what will happen to it after a period of time?
I think it is a cool sentimental idea. It is about as close as you can come to legally giving part of you to someone you care a lot about.
I suspect that without anticoagulants it would spoil very quickly. I think storage of blood in a proper facility for private use is forbidden. Perhaps you could get hold of one of those glass vials where you seal the end with a burner, that may stay a bit more amicable looking.
I still have a wisp of hair that was cut from my mother's head when she was born in 1919.
in vitro storage of whole blood for longer than a few months is simply not feasible regardless of whether it contains sodium citrate or one of the more complex citrate-dextrose complexes currently available.
If you really want preserve a vial of whole blood, the only practical method is freezing, preferably via standard liquid nitrogen methods. Nevertheless, even these methods have their drawbacks.
To be fair, my sister carries a little vial of our grandmothers ashes on a necklace. Personally I think that's kind of gross but if it makes her feel closer to that person then maybe the blood vial thing works like that too.
I think it's a great idea lovepuff! Trouble is, blood doesn't keep,. as others've said. You could keep some in a glass vial, although it'd dry up - or maybe using a carrier oil'd keep it from drying out, but more than likely it'd separate. x
Woolworths sell little phials of fake blood from the middle of September onwards. Give one of those to him. He'll never know and if he opens it so find out if it's real be afraid, be very afraid. Failing that Mouton Rothschild wine looks the part.
the next time you go to the doctor for a blood test, ask if you can have a little extra in a vial, or if they won't give you any, ask how to preserve it. that's the most logical answer I can come up with. also the safest. I've tried to preserve blood many times and have failed each time (most recently, last night). Good luck!