Anecdotes about kidney donation?

My best friend recently got the news that he’s probably going to lose his kidney in 8 months to a year. He’s a candidate for transplant – in fact, this is his second one, and we joke about how he could probably keep one if they’d just stop giving him 60-year-old kidneys. (Yes, we’re sick buggers, I know.) He’s currently down to 16% function, from 24% about six months ago.

He’s not asking, nor has he hinted, suggested, or even (as far as I can tell) thought about it. But what it comes down to is, I’ve done some digging and out of everyone he knows, I’m the only person who might qualify to donate a kidney. He’s got an odd blood type, whereas I’m O+; from what I was told by the ER nurse I spoke to, I can donate to just about anyone. Yay me, I guess. Of course, he can sit on the list, but the list is long.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about it a bit and I’m not sure what I’m going to decide. I’d appreciate it if there are any donors on the Dope who wouldn’t mind sharing their experience – the good, the bad, the unexpected, whatever.

For that matter, if there are any recipients on here who don’t mind sharing, I’d like your viewpoint as well. Would you have felt odd if a friend offered their kidney? Do you think the friendship would survive (or did it)?

What it comes down to I guess is that I’m going to decide for myself one way or another – I’m not looking for votes or encouragement/discouragement or whatever. I’d just like to know what it was like, from people who have been there. Knowing that might help me figure out what I want to do.

For the record, I’ve already bookmarked Living Donors Online, which I was referred to by the nurse I spoke with, but I’m after more personal information, I guess. If anyone knows of other sites that may help, please speak up. :slight_smile:

Check out this thread.
A couple of people answered there.

Well, duh. I swear I tried searching, I really did. Thanks for the link.

Yeah, but that thread’s old, and I can’t post there. :slight_smile:

My dad’s kidneys failed about 3 years ago. He went through dialysis for about a year before somebody gave him a kidney. It was my mom! :smiley:

The surgery was scheduled during finals, so I couldn’t go, but my mom was in and out in a day or two. My dad was in the hospital for a week or so, and I got to visit him once or twice. He was the same smart ass, joking dad that I love the whole time. Two of the funniest jokes I remember him making are (spoilered because they’re kinda raunchy):

[spoiler]
Dr1: Ok, you’re all set. Just remember you’re not supposed to lift anything that weighs more than 10lbs
Dad: Then how am I going to pee?

Dad to Dr 2: Now that I have a woman’s kidney, am I going to have to squat to pee?

Dad to me: After all these years of putting something in your mom, finally she gets to put something into me.[/spoiler]

Hey, I just had a kidney removed about 3 weeks ago (not for donation, though). So, I can’t say anything about the donation aspect, but some tips about the surgery aspect:

  1. Make sure you have some loose, non-elastic waistband, non-button/zipper pants to wear after your surgery. My incision is right where the waistband of my pants rest, and I only have 3 pairs of pants (none of which I can wear to work) that are comfortable to wear(for the most part). My jeans are especially uncomfortable, due to the stitching around the waistband, and the rivits at the top of the pockets. The 3 comfortable pairs are the flannel pajama-pants-like type.

  2. If they put you on a morphine IV in your hand, and it comes out of the vein, and your hand starts to swell up painfully, don’t buzz in the middle of the night to tell the nurse that your hand hurts. In my case, she took out the IV and it took 6 people and over 4 hours to find another vein.

  3. I now have a freaky indentation in my left side where the incision is, and sometimes it feel weird when I walk too fast. Not painful, but more like I can imagine that my innards are squelching around inside the empty space where the kidney used to be (even though I doubt it took up enough space for such a thing to actually be happening).

If you have any specific questions about what it’s like to go through kidney removal surgery (they did mine using laparoscopy*; I don’t know if they’d do that or do open surgery for taking out a donated kidney), I can try to answer 'em.

*Essentially, they make a little incision to insert a little camera/viewing scope, and another little incision to cut the kidney off from all the connect-y thingies and then a big incision to take out the kidney.

ETA: I just skimmed through the surgery page on Living Donors Online, and it’s pretty spot on. I was in the hospital for 5 days (including the day of the surgery), which is long for lapascopy, and back to work in 3 weeks, which is shorter than average.

Wow, I’m apparently advanced! The first post-op chart on that page says average time to go shopping is 2 weeks. I was shopping the day I got released! (For prescriptions and applesauce and Jello and pudding and soup–I was on a soft diet per my discharge instructions).

I donated to my sister-in-law’s husband a little over two years ago.

As I understand it, there are basically three surgeries they can do to remove you kidney. The first is the open-ya-up-from-stem-to-stern with rib removal to get at the bugger. The second is laproscopically where they make three or four small incisions for their instruments and organ exit. The third is called a mini-nephrectomy where they bend you at a fourteen degree angle sideways and go through a single three to four inch incision in the stretched side to get the little blighter.

I went through the third one. I think I was a pretty unusual case as there were, not so much problems, as difficulties. First of all, they were darn close to scrubbing the whole surgery because they could not get me intubated. Seems I have a small mouth and an anterior larynx. Finally, after slicing the bejesus out of my tongue and gums with the “blade” and chipping a tooth, they finally scoped it in.

Then I had a night-mare in recovery and I knocked out the painball they had put in my side. So they put me on a morphine pump and told me it would only administer a dose every ten minutes. Since the hospital room had a clock on the wall right where I could see it, I would wait through the pain and only press the button every nine to ten minutes. This gave the nurses the idea that I was not in that much pain since the button-press to administered-dose ratio was small. If I had known that, I would have racked up a freakin’ high-score on the machine.

When they removed the catheter the next day, my bladder began to spasm and I could not pee for anything. Therefore they had to put another one back in which either caused or helped foster a urinary tract infection.

The surgery took place on a Thursday and they discharged me on the following Sunday. The Percoset was giving me night-terrors anytime I slept so I switched to OTC Tylenol when I got home and it was enough to beat the pain from then on.

I was readmitted on Tuesday to take care of the UTI and because I had not pooped since before the surgery. I don’t know why they call it “Go Lightly” because you do anything but. I must say, though, there are pygmy tribes in the sub-Sahara that are singing songs of worship and praise to that first poo. It was righteous.

So they finally let me out a second time that Thursday, a week after the original surgery. I was a little jealous as the recipient had gone home on Wednesday! My wife, who is a nurse, and I joke about how many different “adverse outcome” surveys I was probably included on because of the re-admit.

Anyway, I was back at work a month after the surgery. If I had gotten active during that month, I probably would have been in better shape. As it was, I was using a new Netflix subscription to the max so my stamina was terribly low when I returned to work.

Two years later, my side still feels… weird. I have a seditary job and exercise is a four-letter word so that is pretty much my own fault though. I think if I worked it, the muscles in my side would be stronger and less of a constant reminder of what they went through.

That is my story, for better or worse. I have not talked to any other donors so I do not know if it is atypical or not. The donor is doing excellently though, so I guess it pretty much made it all worth it.

I wasn’t chiding you, but it’s been a couple of years since I posted there, and figured I couldn’t say it any better today then I did then.

Really? I’m surprised at that, since I wasn’t allowed out until I had passed gas, defecated and had 2 solid meals (I was on a liquid diet until I’d done the first). I had to get a suppository in order to get that to happen, even.

Although, that does remind me, Sofaspud, you’ll probably have to take a laxative (mine was 10 oz magnesium citrate) and/or an enema before the surgery. I also got a prescription for 2 antibiotics to take the day before. I was queasy most of the day starting from when I drank the magnesium citrate at noon, up until 11:05 pm–when I asked my sister how long after taking antibiotics until it was okay to throw up, and then ran to the bathroom seconds later to heave my guts up (and repeated the trip 3 or 4 times over the next few hours). I had shrugged off the side-effects list, thinking that a mere 12 tablets (6 per antibiotics) over 6 hours wouldn’t be long enough to show side-effects very much.

It surprise my wife (a nurse) and I as well. I was on a soft diet on Friday but back to a normal (as that word applies to hospital food) diet on Saturday. My wife and I have talked about that and we realized the surgery was done at a teaching hospital – in the first week of July. What happens in teaching hospitals at the first of July? They get all of the new residents, interns and med-students. I kind of think the resident that discharged me got the dressing down of a life-time because I was readmitted. I think that because the doctor who did the daily visits during the readmission was none other than the surgeon who removed my kidney. My wife says that is highly unusual.

I wasn’t given anything to “clean me out” before the surgery. They gave me Dulcolax tablets after the surgery to get things going (a lot of good they did…) but nothing harsh. That practice probably depends on individual hospital policies.

Anyway, Sofaspud, during the initial screening process there were basically three stages of tests. Each stage had close to a month inbetween:

The first is to see if you are a match to the recipient. That’s pretty much a blood draw (close to a dozen vials worth).

The second phase is to assess your overall health. Basically, more blood.

The third is to assess the health of your kidneys. This entailed an injection of contrast dye while I was in an Xray or MRI (I forget which it was). This shows them the blood flow through the kidneys. They need to make sure you have two healthy ones before they can take one out. It is not a bad experience but the contrast dye makes you feel very warm. I just closed my eyes and imagined I was on a beach in Hawaii until the feeling passed and the test was done (a couple of minutes).

I am told they prefer to remove the left kidney as the arteries, veins and ureater are a bit longer than the right one. Of course, they will assess that during the third round of tests.

As for the emotional impact, my situation was different in that the recipient and I are pseudo-family. His family was very appreciative of what I did and his family kind of “adopted” me and my family as well. His grandmother started sending cards to my son for his birthday, Christmas, Easter, etc. It was very sweet.

Anyway, I guess the way we “handle” the emotional side of it is that we don’t. We’re guys so we don’t talk about it and it does not seem to have changed anything.

My mom is diabetic, and her kidneys are failing quickly.
Her Neph talked to her about a kidney transplant.

I was going to give one of my kidneys to my mom. Not long after making that decision (and after seeing how diabetes ‘works’ for so many years), I noticed that I was having diabetes symptoms.
I promptly went to my doctor.
She did some tests, then sent me to an Endo the very same day.
I found out that I’m now a Type 1 diabetic, on 3 injections per day, plus assorted pills.

I cannot be my mom’s kidney doner, and my sister refused to donate one of hers, which was her choice.
She later found out that she is diabetic, also, but it’s because of her weight, mostly. She’s Type 2.

Mom has told me that she will NOT begin dialysis, as she is just ‘tired of it all’.
I told her what a miserable death she will have, but she refuses to listen.
Whatever. It’s her life, her choice.

She went to our local funeral home and pre-planned her funeral yesterday.
That finally made me realize that I guess she’s serious about what she said.

Ouch. I’m really sorry to hear that, non.

This raises one question I have which nothing I’ve found yet addresses. I am/was diabetic. I say ‘was’ because I haven’t been for several years. It was adult-onset, I don’t remember which type, and for a couple years I was on insulin shots twice daily. Then it went to controlling blood sugar with food. Now, I don’t control it at all and I have no problems with it. The last time I went to a doctor he said everything looked fine. He was careful not to say I was cured, but he did say it looked like I had nothing to worry about.

So, I guess the question is, given that history, am I even going to be considered for donation? Nothing I’ve found says anything one way or another about diabetes, specifically; they’re full of warnings about communicable diseases and immune system problems and so on, but nothing about the big D.

Everyone: thanks for your input and sharing your stories. It helps give me a feel for what’s involved a lot better than clinical statistics. :slight_smile: