That’s one way to be a bloody entrepreneur… literally. 20-year-old Carisa Barker is a shopping addict, and she’ll most likely go into a major withdrawal if she doesn’t get a shopping fix several times a week. Her happiness starts and ends with retail therapy. According to her, she loves her lifestyle because she doesn’t have to work so hard to fund her cheer-seeking trips. The Salt Lake City student, who also works part-time as a nanny began to donate her blood plasma after a friend told her about the profits and brought her along on a trip to the clinic. She’d been doing it ever since, and in the past year, she’s made over $3,000 dollars from going in twice a week.
Speaking to the South West News Service, Barker said she’s so addicted to shopping that she hits the stores about three to four times a week. “Clothes and shoes are my favorite things to buy and I also love beauty products,” she said. “It’s just a little bit of extra money that I can spend that I don’t feel I worked very hard for.”
Carisa runs her own YouTube channel where she shares the details of her fast-paced life with her subscribers. She donates her blood plasma twice a week at BioLife Plasma Services in Layton, Utah. The clinic doesn’t issue payments for blood donations, but plasma donors receive payments. Barker explains that after her blood is extracted and the contents are separated, the light yellow liquid, which is the plasma, would be taken and preserved while the solid components would be transfused back into her bloodstream. The process is known as plasmapheresis, and it usually doesn’t last longer than one hour.
“I go in and complete a survey to make sure I am feeling well that day, that I have no tattoos or piercings,” she explained. “They screen you and take your blood pressure and temperature. It takes them a while to pump the blood out and put it through the machine. The machine separates the red blood cells from the plasma. Then they put the blood back into my body. As long as I eat a lot of protein before I go and stay hydrated, I feel fine.”
Barker isn’t apologetic about her lifestyle, and she says that as long as there are no health risks to donating her plasma, she’s not quitting anytime soon. “I get $20 the first time and $50 the next time,” she said. “I would absolutely recommend it to people who are short of cash and want to go shopping.” She explains that she has an honest-to-goodness addiction and she can’t bring her self to shop less let alone stop it completely. Her shopping trips give her a sense of power and euphoria.
Barker encourages herself with the opinion that she’s doing a good deed. She explains that plasma is an essential component that helps people in physical trauma. “There are no health risks that I know of and my parents are fine with me doing it,” Barker said. “My plasma is used to make medicines for people with rare diseases. It makes me feel good to know that I’m helping people. I plan to keep donating.”
