Sunday, November 13, 2005

Kidney Donation

OK, so it's been a while, but life has been busy, and I don't always know what to say. But now I've got a topic that matters enough to me to put in writing. My aunt, who is also my godmother, has had kidney troubles on and off for the past ten years or so. Recently it was decided that she needs a kidney transplant. My mother was the first to test to be a donor, but she is unable to donate. So I have now offered to step in and test and donate if I match. Right now we're still in the beginning phases of all this, and my aunt doesn't want me to even start testing unless Ben is behind this, and I wholeheartedly agree. He's going to be the person who will have to help me out and be my support through all of this so needs to be a ready and willing participant.
I want to do this because my aunt is such an amazing person, and I'm close to her. I really don't want her to have to be on dialysis for the rest of her life. As helpful as dialysis is, it also is quite a drain on a person. You have to go three times a week, and it takes hours to go through the process every time. I can't imagine that it's at all comfortable to be on dialysis. So, my line of thinking is, I have two good kidneys (in theory, anyway... apparently, some people are only born with one!), I'm healthy, if I match, I should help her out because I know that she'd be the first in line if our places were switched.
This is such a big thing, and it will interfere with my life, but she's more important to me than my job. The school could easily live without me for a few weeks, and I'm certain that the principal would understand.
Going into surgery is scary, I've been there before. But last time it was because I had to. I am choosing this time. I know that I may not even be able to do this for one reason or another, but I am still trying to think every part of this through. I don't want to be surprised with something that I didn't consider. That is why I am going to be talking this over thoroughly with Ben, my parents and my doctor.
Well, it feels better to have this out there.

1 comment:

Bob Williams said...

A person I work with named Barry Hammond who was a recepient of a kidney from his brother about three years ago. He considers his brother to be a hero to him because of this, because it was a pain to deal with the pain of all the medical issues he had because of it. This is a huge deal for your aunt I'm sure.

It was scary for him though, because of medication problem after the surgery he almost lost the kidney from rejection.

Doing this for your aunt will be difficult to do. Your are healthy, but the fear is of course whether you will remain so in later years. Which is hard to know since your also young. This is something you will need to discuss with your parents and Ben, but something you really should give a great deal of thought to as well.

I think it's great your willing to do this. I don't know how long you've been dealing with this, since we don't really talk, but I want you to be safe and not to be over repeating myself, but give this long hours of thought. This will be life changing for you too, though you will not have to change your life style by having only one kidney, you will have to careful.