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Hello all,
Read an interesting article on kidney donation and just signed up to be an anonymous donor. Has anyone donated a kidney?? If so, what was the recovery experience like?
Cheers!
Wow. No experience of this, but massive respect to you for even considering it! 👍👍
That's quite the altruistic act. Respect.
It's major surgery, recovery will be fairly lengthy for both parties, and obviously you'd need to take care of your remaining one for a lifetime because you no longer have a spare.
They can do what they want with me when I'm dead.
I think it would have to be a seriously ill very good friend or family member for me to donate while I was alive.
I haven't myself. Was it Scott Alexander you were reading about? He did it recently iirc and has a big audience for his writing - has put out loads of interesting stuff over the years at slatestarcodex. Goes to town on the ins and outs of kidney donation.
Was it Scott Alexander you were reading about? He did it recently iirc and has a big audience for his writing – has put out loads of interesting stuff over the years at slatestarcodex. Goes to town on the ins and outs of kidney donation.
No, it was on Defector ( https://defector.com/you-too-can-donate-a-kidney-and-still-be-a-normal-cool-guy-who-pounds-brewskis), I will definitely look into the Scott Alexander stuff though, thanks.
It was mentioned that it can sometimes trigger a donor chain, obviously not guaranteed, but the thought that it could help multiple people is what really tipped me over the edge:
When a person chooses to donate anonymously as a non-directed altruistic donor (NDAD) to a recipient on the national waiting list, the donor is registered into the UKLKSS to initiate an altruistic donor chain (ADC). The donated kidney is allocated to a recipient in the paired/pooled scheme and, in turn, the donor registered with that recipient donates to another recipient and so on. The chain ends when the last donor donates to a recipient on the national transplant list.
I'm already registered as an organ donor, and in relatively good shape, but as mentioned, another excuse to take better care of myself wouldn't go amiss.
Not a chance I would be a living donor unless it was to a much younger relative I was very close to
Its life altering and quite possibly life limiting surgery with high risks.
No, it was on Defector ( https://defector.com/you-too-can-donate-a-kidney-and-still-be-a-normal-cool-guy-who-pounds-brewskis)
Seems like a admirable bloke, but it should be noted he was doing it for a friend. Anonymous live donation to a stranger is an even higher level. There is, as with any surgery on that scale, a small risk of serious complications or even death, and it's something that I hope you take the opportunity to consider seriously over a longer period of time before following through with it, even if you get contacted as a match pretty quickly.
I know somebody who has, albeit for a close family member (I as I assume most others would do the same.) it’s been a VERY rough journey for that person, and the follow up care/checks are understandably extensive. Educate yourself first. Hats off to you for even considering it though.
One thing that I’ve wondered (and never asked the donor I know.), if you donate, and then in later years your remaining kidney goes west, do you get bumped up the donor list as a sort of altruistic thank you?
Its life altering and quite possibly life limiting surgery with high risks.
Could you expand on the life limiting part please??
My wife thinks I've sold six kidneys over the years. That was the only way to convince her I wasn't spending real money on my bikes.
Could you expand on the life limiting part please??
Aside from potential surgery complications and risks which another post has touched on, the main consideration would be - is my one remaining kidney going to peg out at some point and leave me needing dialysis and on the transplant list myself?
Broadly, studies have shown that there is no significant difference in risk of End-Stage Renal Disease (ie your remaining kidney starting to fail) between live kidney donors and the general population. But there are some questions as to whether it's fair to compare live kidney donors with the gen pop, as the 'live donor' group tends to be fitter and healthier (otherwise they wouldn't be greenlit for the procedure), so it may look like they are doing better than they actually are.
This study tried to balance things out and take account of this, and did find a increased risk, albeit not a massive one in absolute terms. And this was, for many of the patients, within a relatively short period of the op, rather than decades later, so the long term risk is still slightly questionable.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24519297/
A sensible approach would be to accept that, regardless of the healthy lifestyle you'll be following, there may be an small extra risk that you'll end up with some nasty consequences, and factor that into your decision making.
Good luck either way, just acting on the impulse to stick yourself on the list marks you out as one of the good guys.
A good friend of mine gave a kidney to his brother about five years ago now.
Recovery was long - he'd travelled to be operated on, and was advised not to return (long haul flight) for at least six months.
He then had a hernia through where he had the kidney out - though tbf that might have been his fault - which added another six months or so recovery, and a note of caution.
He's now living well - on the lash as well from time to time - as is his brother.
It's a lot to go through.
I have a friend who donated a kidney to his brother. He has had no long term issues and still lives the same life he did previously, including some 'big' nights out. He is 54 now.
This was a good few years back and sadly his brother is once again having problems so may need another. My friend says that he now realises that it would have been better if his Mum had donated instead of him, leaving him free to donate now. She is now probably too old.
I think its an amazing thing for you to even consider.
I also have a customer who has just gone on the list.
He is a lovely chap, he has thankfully got a lot of people who have volunteered to try to help. At the moment he has told the transplant team that he would like to avoid using one of these until he is more desperate. Although one of his volunteers is a little miffed at this and feels that they should just get on with it.
Its certainly complicated stuf, both mentally and physically all round.
Interestingly, in the search for the perfect donor, they check to see what virus's you have had and try to find a kidney to match this too. And I believe a live donor has much better chance of success.
I just wanted to echo earlier comments about the bravery and selflessness of anyone considering this. Living donors make up about 40% of all organ donors and 20% of transplants - and these are generally high-quality, lower risk and such an important part of good patient outcomes.
Most donors donate to someone they know, directly. But, last year, over 100 kidney transplants were made possible by people donating indirectly on agreement that someone else does the same ("paired" donation, where you might not match to your intended recipient but someone else does and you therefore enter a chain).
Even more incredibly, there were over 80 amazing people who came forward and donated without a link to anyone else, leading to nearly 120 patients benefitting from a living donor transplant.
Even more incredibly, there were over 80 amazing people who came forward and donated without a link to anyone else, leading to nearly 120 patients benefitting from a living donor transplant.<br /><br />
genuine question, how does one get 120 patients benefitting from 80 living donors? the maff don’t work…
My friend's wife donated a kidney. To him! He had kidney disease all his life after childhood chemotherapy and eventually went into renal failure. The irony was that he managed a renal dialysis unit for the NHS. They are both doing fine after more than ten years.
the maff don’t work…
The other 40 donors were known to the recipients, or it becomes a bit of an HLA-type swaperoo as the overall pool is larger with known donors - see above example.
Got it, thanks. The separate paragraph led me to think that was an additional 120 on top of the 100! Still bloody good news though. hope for humanity yet.
I’d do it but want to set some rules that I won’t donate to;
Do you ride a Suron X
Have you every ranted at a cyclist or deliberately performed a stupid overtake to teach someone a lesson X
Did you vote for Brexit X
Do you drop litter X
If you dinged a car in a Carpark accidentally would you just drive off X
Are you a middle lane moron X