It is my deepest wish not to make this about any sort of self-promotion, but here you have it — I am a few days post-op from a kidney donation to an unknown person and want to share this with my Concord community.
Since the age of 17, I have been an active blood and platelet donor, frequently needing to run up flights of stairs to get my blood pressure high enough to qualify to lose a pint of red cells. I took breaks for pregnancies and for trips to malaria endemic areas. One used to have to wait three years after an African trip, now it’s down to three months — whew — because I still travel to that continent.
Last March, I was trying to reschedule a donation that was canceled due to a snow storm in Colorado (where I live half time) and on their website there was a link to the National Kidney Registry with a question like: “Have you considered becoming a living donor?” Huh. Well, not since I got aged out of the bone marrow registry. I clicked on the link, went down that rabbit hole and nine months later found myself being wheeled into the OR at Brigham and Women’s in Boston. And despite four stab wounds and a lower incision in my belly which looks five months pregnant, I am so totally thrilled that I did.
So why is this important? Here are some facts about needs for donations of all sorts: Kidneys are the most transplanted organs, so logically the need is great. People wait an average of three years on dialysis before a donor becomes available, and often it’s a cadaver kidney. More than 100,000 people in the United States are waiting for a transplant, and 90% of these are for kidneys.
Every year, the gap between eligible donors and people in need of kidneys gets bigger. Live donations also include liver and pancreas portions as well as skin and some other tissues. Renal failure and dialysis, caused by a myriad of conditions from diabetes to lupus, does not equate with a life of ease. It usually involves three weekly trips to a dialysis center, and decreased overall quality of life, high pill burden, caretaker involvement, along with coping with the chronic illness that got one there in the first place. A living donation results in better overall outcomes for the recipient than a cadaver organ, and a longer life span of that donor kidney. I am now 71 and dearly hope that my kidney will outlive me.
Because living donors are quite healthy, their outcomes after surgery are good and more than 90% express that they have no regrets. In fact, many donors have better mental health and outlooks on life in the years after donation. No surprise here!
We are just not that good at donations. Only 3% of folks eligible for blood donation actually give. I get the queasiness of it, but I (who am mercifully not needle phobic at all) got over any misgivings by comparing the two needle sticks and the 20 minutes involved in a donation of a pint of blood to the suffering of someone with Leukemia or a major accident. No contest.
Of course the kidney involved much more, and it should. They wanted to make sure, especially at my age, that my body had no infectious diseases, no chronic conditions that would affect my renal function and that I could live the rest of my life safely with one kidney. It involved myriads of blood tests, scans, x-rays and psychiatric evaluations. Alan, my beloved companion in this journey, and I made a fun day out of our Boston trips: museums, good restaurants and walks.
Personally, this has also fit with my spiritual and humanistic beliefs. I had a 51-year career in medicine and thus witnessed all sorts of sufferings and triumphs. I consider everyone my neighbor, and seek to alleviate suffering aligns with my personal Christian values and those of my Buddhist family members. I know I had prayers from my church community as well as my Jewish and Muslim friends. I felt surrounded. I asked prayers for the recipient above all and found out the next day that my kidney had been transplanted that same day and was already functioning in that person.
Do I expect everyone reading this to go knocking on the doors of the National Kidney Registry? Of course not. The purpose is to create a small drop in a pond which might cause ripples to spread. Have you checked the donor box on your license? Have you reconsidered trying a blood donation after having being rejected for some reason decades ago? Do you know someone in need, or someone who could go down this path? Spread the word. Please.
We’re a fabulous community here and deeply care for each other. We know how to give generously and do so over and over again. I am well on the mend from the surgery and will be back to doing gentle pool laps and on hikes before too long. And I visualize Renate (the name I gave my left kidney) doing her best filtering job for decades to come and giving someone this season’s gift of a better life.