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Facts About Kidney Donation

The following facts are posted on the National Kidney Foundation website in a sample letter to family and friends

Here’s some basic information about kidney donation:

  • You only need one kidney to live a healthy, long life.
  • Most donor surgery is done laparoscopically, meaning through tiny incisions.
  • The recuperation period is usually fairly quick, generally two weeks.
  • The cost of your evaluation and surgery will be covered by my insurance The hospital can give you extensive information on this.
  • You will have a separate team of healthcare professionals to evaluate you as a living donor. Their job is to help you understand the risks and benefits and look out for YOUR best interests.

    A Note of Inspiration

    Morning Meditation

    Have patience with everything

    unresolved in your heart,

    and try to love the questions themselves

    as if they were locked rooms

    or books written in a very foreign language

    Do not search for the answers, which

    could not be given to you now,

    because you would not be able to live them.

    And the point is to live everything.

    Live the questions now.

    Perhaps then, someday far in the future,

    you will gradually,

    without even noticing it, live your way

    into the answer. 

                    —   Rainer Maria Rilke

    The following video, Dr. Leigh Anne Dageforde and Organ Donation, is posted on the Mass General Living Donor Program website.  It is most informative about the process of kidney donation.

    When I Fear the Unknown

    Sometimes, like a child in the dark hiding from an imagined monster in the closet, I feel immobilized by fear of the unknown.  As the child is reassured by a parent turning on a light to show a monster-free closet, so am I able to take action once the facts of my situation are revealed. 

    Life often takes us to unfamiliar places.  My journey to find a living donor has certainly taken me by surprise!  Sometimes I feel frightened by the unknown aspects of this process, and I welcome the input and support of those who have been through it.   

    Wrestling with the question of whether to become a donor is also a journey into the unknown.  I hope that the information and ongoing posts on my website will offer you some guidance in the decision-making process.   

    The following video, Donation Myths: True or False, is posted on the kidney registry website www.kidneyregistry.org   It has some interesting facts about being a donor.   

    In the Circle Game

    It’s the season of thanks and giving.   Thoughts of those who are less fortunate come to my mind—such as the people of Ukraine, the poor, and those who are suffering from significant illness. 

     

    With all that I have and am so deeply grateful for, I’m also surprised to find myself in such dire need.  Yet that is what this season teaches us:  we are never all on only one side of the equation—we are always both the givers and the ones in need.  It’s uncomfortable for me to be in the position of explaining to complete strangers how much I need a new kidney.  It seems like such a big ask, yet I’m hopeful that someone I don’t know yet will be moved to meet this moment and come forward with a great gift.    

    First grade play The Grains of Wheat

    As a young first grade teacher, I wrote a play based on the scripture passage that begins, “Unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain…” (John:12:24-26)    My students were the actors as the grains of wheat.    The hero of the play was the seed who took the risk of going underground but by this very act that seed began feeling the excitement of new life and produced many new wheat sheaves.  I think this season gives all of us the opportunity to find meaning in the act of giving of what we truly have to offer.  It also calls upon us to trust that in this circle of life someone will be there to hear our need.     

    I will be celebrating Thanksgiving with my family who live nearby and hope that you also will be with your loved ones for this day.   The following words of the songwriter Joni Mitchell capture the spirit of how we all adapt to the ups and downs of life and keep going round. 

     

    “And the seasons, they go round and round

    And the painted ponies go up and down 

    We’re captive on the carousel of time

    We can’t return, we can only look

    Behind, from where we came

    And go round and round and round, in the circle game

    And go round and round and round, in the circle game”