Taking steps tward donating: is it right for you?

Donating organs saves lives!!! Kidneys in particular, since more than half of all transplants needed are kidney transplants. The good news here is that unlike other organs most people are born with two kidneys, and provided they are healthy we can continue to live long healthy lives with just one. So, if we were fitted with a spare why not give the other one to someone who needs it. Think of all the people we could save. All the family's that would get to keep their loved one around a lot longer.

 Wait.... Sounds great but, before you put me on ice and yank out my kidney how do I know if its right for me. Well keep reading, hopefully this will answer some questions for those of you who might be interested. For those of you who are on the fence, maybe this will be the nudge you need to jump off. For those that feel donating an organ just isn't a decision they can make,( lets face it its a lot to ask, and having someone take out a perfectly good organ is some scary sh..t) a little information is good for everyone. Getting the word out for a worthy cause is never waisted breath.

Steps to living donation:
Do you even qualify? Here are a few easy questions:
-are you physically fit & in good general health
-do you have or have ever had: high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, or kidney disease
If you said yes to the first two questions and no to the others then you passed the first stage to be becoming a living donor. Next is to contact a donor registry if you don't already have a recipient in mind. You will be asked to contact the recipients transplant center and they will get you started by sending a packet of info. and some papers to sign. You will need to send these back along with the last three years of your medical history. Once you have filled these out and sent them in they will decide if you may be a possible donor. This does not necessarily mean you'll be able to donate.

How will I know if I'm a match?
Provided you have had a regular check up within the year the next step will be a blood test for genetic testing ( a kit gets sent to you with instructions for the lab). This step can take up to two or three weeks. All tests at this point(including the genetic testing) will be still be done by your primary care physician and a local lab, but will be covered under the recipients health care coverage provided the testing was ordered by the transplant clinic.
What they are looking for with the blood test is a compatible blood type, and if it is, your blood will then be spun with the recipients blood. This is done because your DNA will always be present in your kidney even after it has been transplanted. The doctors look to see how the recipients immune system reacts to your DNA. A positive match means the recipients immune system has killed off all the donor's blood cells during testing, and would do the same to the donor's kidney (not so positive).
If the test is negative then the donors blood was not attacked and testing continues.

Next test... HLA or human leukocyte antigens:
This test identifies the markers we inherit from our parents. Though we are made up of thousands of pieces of DNA, this test will only need to look at six individual pieces. The best match would be a"six antigen" match, which means the donor and the recipient match all six. This doesn't happen very frequently, and usually will only happen between siblings. The cross-match only determines if the donor's kidney would be accepted by the recipient. Only after that is determined will the doctors move forward and test if the donor is healthy enough to donate.

After these tests have been performed and a potential donor has been selected the next series of evaluations begins. This includes the required laboratory tests, which are:
-a twenty-four hour urine collection
-blood work
-a urinalysis with urine culture that will indicate your kidneys are healthy and functioning normally

If every thing goes well you will be scheduled for a physical and history check, done by the transplant surgeon and nephrologyst(kidney specialist). You also meat with the transplant social worker and living donor coordinator at this time. Blood will be drawn and you will have an electrocardiogram(EKG).

Assuming you make it past all of that you will then have a three dimensional CT of your kidneys and a chest x-ray. They do the CT to make sure you have normal sized kidneys, that you have no kidney stones, and to determine the number of blood vessels that supply each kidney.

Great... you look very healthy....we'll be taking that kidney now please... O.k. so maybe they wont put it quite like that but, after all that testing the rest goes fairly quickly. It's just finding a time that works for everyone.

The primary goal of the living donor evaluation is to minimize risk to the donor. No one wants to cause another person to be ill!! The goal is to save people not injure them. If at anytime during these tests they where to find something wrong they stop testing, and send all the information they have to your doctor and the proper specialist. Any testing after this however, would not be covered by the recipients insurance.
As a donor you also have the right to stop testing for any reason, and end the donor process.
During part of the living donor evaluation you will meet with an independent living donor advocate. This person is here for the donor only, and is available at any time.

How does living donation affect the donor?
Studies have shown that one kidney can be more than enough to keep the body healthy. Living donation does not change the life expectancy, but, as with any surgery there is risk of complications. After surgery, the living donor can expect to lead a normal healthy life.
Recovery time is fairly short because the surgery is done laparoscopically. Most people are out of the hospital within 2 days, and back to work and daily life within 2-6 weeks depending on how quickly your body heals.

Many long-term (20yrs) studies have followed donor patients and found that they are no more likely to suffer from kidney failure or shortened life span than the average person who has not donated. There is lots of research that supports this, and that talks about how many donors have an above average life expectancy. This is due to the fact that donors are picked because they are the healthiest people.

I'll refrain from going on any longer. There is so much info. I could ramble on for weeks, but if you would like even more info. I have some great links so check em out. Class dismissed.