A Kidney for D Scott

Scott’s medical insurance pays for the donor’s evaluation, testing and surgery, so the donor will not incur any medical expenses. If travel expenses are a factor, we are more than willing to cover those.  Time off work does need to be considered, though. Donor r ecovery time is 4-6 weeks.   A new Ohio law gives state employees paid time off work for donating.

Once you are cleared as a donor & matched with Scott, surgery is scheduled within a few weeks. The Week Before Surgery A week before surgery, you and Scott will have blood drawn for final tissue matching, and HIV / Hepatitis testing. Also, you will have a pre-op physical, blood / urine collected for labs, an education session with your coordinator, and a meeting with your donor advocate.  All of this confirms you are physically & mentally stable and prepared for donation. Kidney Donation Surgery - Day 1 When you arrive early the morning the day of surgery, you are admitted and taken to the pre-op area. Medical staff conducts a final exam, draws blood, and places an IV in your arm. These final health checks confirm you are in excellent health for donation. You meet with your surgeon prior to being taken into the operating room, and can address last minute questions / concerns before surgery. You are taken to a pre-surgical area and given medicine to help you rela...

Surgery is usually performed laparoscopically, meaning smaller incisions, requiring a shorter hospital stay for faster recovery. Most donors go home the day after surgery. About a week after surgery most donors report feeling tired but able to return to normal activities. Driving may resume 1-2 weeks after surgery, and depending on the occupation, can normally return to work after 2-4 weeks. In the first 6 weeks, donors are restricted from lifting anything above 5-10 lbs. After that 6 week period, all normal life activities can resume. Below is a link to the OSU Wexner Center donor assessment form: https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/-/media/files/wexnermedical/patient-care/healthcare-services/transplant/living-donation/living_donor_assessment_form.pdf?la=en&hash=21735EBF158D8447AB7FFD2CC5EBB7DC2532C6B8

What Are the Risks of Donating a Kidney? Life expectancy after donation is the same as that of people with two kidneys. A single kidney is able to meet the body's needs very well as it enlarges to do the work formerly shared by both kidneys. Donors are tested and re-tested prior to surgery to ensure overall good health for the best possible outcomes. Only healthy people are accepted as donors. The safety of the donor is of the utmost importance. Living kidney donation surgery is considered a relatively safe procedure, but it is still a major surgery with the potential for complications. It is recommended that female donors wait at least six months after donation surgery before becoming pregnant.

According to the literature from Ohio State, below are the steps in the evaluation process to donate.  It is a little intimidating at first, but makes total sense when it comes to Scott's health and the health of the donor (you or me 🙂).  I personally also think about it as a deep dive into my own health - many of these tests I've never had, so it will be a good way to dig up anything I don't know about (or better yet confirm that I'm healthy)! Ohio State schedules the evaluation, including 1) initial medical tests, 2) an education session for more information about the donation process, from a physical, emotional, and social standpoint, 3) meetings with a surgeon and a nephrologist, 4) a meeting with a donor advocate - this is on the social work side to ensure you understand what you are signing up for and to ensure the medical team you are doing it for the right reasons, and 5) schedule additional testing. What to expect: You will need to provide ...

To qualify as a living donor, you should be in good physical / mental health and free from uncontrolled high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, HIV/AIDS and organ disease. Age range is 18-70, and gender and race are not factors in matching. Donor candidates take a blood test to determine compatibility. In Scott’s case, he is only compatible with Type O donors. HOWEVER, if you are not Type O, you can still be an indirect donor (this is the route  I am pursuing). Ohio State can help match an incompatible donor/recipient pair & another incompatible pair with “Kidney Paired Donation”. If Scott is a match with a donor from another pair & I am a match for another recipient, OSU can arrange simultaneous transplants. This way 2 recipients receive organs from 2 donors, although the original pairs were mismatched. Kidney Paired Donation can involve multiple donors & recipients. In 2011, OSU was national recognized for a 6-way paired kidney transplant, coordinating trans...

Welcome to your weekly kidney donation education session! Thanks so much to our kind friends who have expressed curiosity!  ❤️ People with kidney disease have 3 options: 1) kidney transplant from a living donor, 2) dialysis, or 3) kidney transplant from a deceased donor. 1. The best option is a transplant from a living donor. Wait times are months instead of years & kidneys from living donors can last up to twice as long as a deceased donor organ. About 1/2 of the 250 annual kidney transplants at OSU use live donors. Often they are family members, but a growing number are friends or coworkers. 2. Dialysis is a temporary solution. People can take dialysis for years, however, it is not a cure. In our case, it would require a major lifestyle shift as it is very time consuming, with treatments 3 times a week for 4 hours each. We hope to avoid this, but may not have a choice if we don’t find a donor soon. 3. With deceased donor transplant, demand is much greater than sup...