Deciding on the Journey

This blog is about my personal journey to donate a kidney as an anonymous donor.
I am starting this 2 months after my initial meeting with the Live Organ Donor Coordinator and figure I should bring you up to speed on how this came about and what's happened thus far.

The Decision
I have been a blood donor for several years, which started because in 2005 my brother was T-boned by a semi and needed blood. Since that time I have been donating as often as I can as it was some one's blood that helped save my brother's life. After one particular donation I was given a pamphlet for the One Match program, and I signed up. Through my research into what One Match is I came across information on organ donation.
This was something that struck a cord with me and I decided to research further. At the time I was a starving student, and unable to take the time to recover from surgery, let alone afford the time off work. But it stuck with me. My life finally became settled in December, I was done school, married, moved to a new city and was working at a new job. All of the bumps in the road had been sorted out and I finally had the stability required to revisit organ donation.

I continued to research what donation was, the risks, what life was like post-donation and through it all I decided that I wanted to do it. The city in which I live just started the Anonymous Donor program, and I am the first to go through it. I contacted the Living Donor program, and on January 25th went in for my initial meeting.


The Road Thus Far

At this initial meeting they described for me the tests I would need to go through, what the surgery would be like, what to expect in life after, and the difference that I would be making in someone's life.

For tests I would need 2 urine tests, a blood test, abdominal ultrasound, a kidney function test, and a full body scan.
Additional requirements include a meeting with a social worker, a psychologist, and a few others which havent happened yet.

I have 1 urine test left (glucose level) and the full body scan. The urine test I need to go for 2hrs after eating breakfast, which unfortunately due to a busy schedule is why I havent been able to get that one done yet.
The MRI is scheduled for April 21. I have to fast for 6hrs prior to the test, and as its in the evening so I dont miss work, I anticipate being a bit cranky.

The interesting test was the kidney function test. I was told that I needed to be well hydrated and right before going in they even had me drink water. I was given an injection of radioactive material, laid on a imaging slab and contrast images were taken for 30mins, then every hour for 2 hours. I was able to look on the screen and see the green of the radioactive material work its way through my body through my bloodstream.
That was the other "fun" part of this test. Bloodwork. Every hour for 2 hours following the injection. Just a note... I hate needles. Hate them. Cannot stand the thought of them, and I get squeamish if I see one. Any type of blood test or injection into a vein makes me nauseous and light headed. Apparently one of the reasons I had to be well hydrated is so my veins would be nice and plump, easy to stick. Right. Apparently by the time the third and final blood test was being done my veins were not in great shape as it took 3 attempts to find a vein. I almost passed out.
But I did it. Thankfully. And my understanding is that I am pretty much done for blood tests until a match is found and surgery is approaching.

The other interesting part of this process thus far was the visit with the Social Worker.
She was a wonderful lady, and I had a great time talking with her. She asked about me, my personal medical history, my family, my support systems, my husband; my reasons for donating, how I came about deciding to donate, and what I expected to get from this. She told me that as an anonymous donor I would probably never meet the recipient of my kidney, and I told her that I was okay with that. I dont feel this person would owe me anything, or that I would have some sort of say in how they live their life. The only thing I would want is that this person, whoever they might be, would do something, however big or whoever small, to make a difference in this world.
I'll fill out more of the details on this in a later post, and will continue to blog about what the road to donation is like.