Q&A's

I had a lot of questions going into this. Here's some fun facts that I've learned and some questions that I had and a few others that I didn't think of before, but are important to know...

In February of 2007 there were 70,156 people in the United States on the kidney transplant list. More are added every day.

In 2006 15,722 people received a kidney transplant from a live or deceased donor.

Q. What are the requirements for being a kidney donor?
A. -Must be 18 years old.
-Have no major medical or psychiatric illness
-Not be pregnant or intend to be pregnant for at least one year post surgery
-Not overweight. You can still try if you can lose the weight.
-Don't smoke ( if you do you have to quite and not start back) or use illegal drugs.
-Understand the risks of surgery
*Having your own health insurance is very helpful but not required.

Q. Do I have to be related to the recipient?
A. No. It goes by blood type. A, B, AB, O... You can ask your doctor how to find out your blood type.
The Red Cross can tell if you go give blood, which is always good to do too.

20% of living transplant donors are not related to the recepient.

Q. Who pays for the testing leading up to the donation and the surgery?
A. The recepients insurance pays for the testing and surgery.

Q. How is the kidney removed?
A. Two ways. If everything checks out from the CT angiogram of your kidney, laparoscopic surgery is available. That way there is no large incision which makes recovery much easier. If needed they will make a larger incision which cuts muscle to take the kidney out, Ouch! This way makes for a rougher recovery, hurts longer, but no matter which way, the kidneys still come out all shiny and new!

Q. How long would I be in the hospital and what is recovery like?
A. A donor stays in the hospital about 3 days and can expect 4 to 6 weeks to feel totally normal again.

Q. Would I have to take medicine to maintain my health after surgery.
A. There are no meds to take, only continue living a healthy life style, have annual physical exams to check your blood pressure, blood and urine to make sure your remaining kidney is still in good working order. The only thing that I know of that is different, that a donor has shared with me, is that you can not take ibuprofen because it is processed through the kidneys. Just make sure that your doctor knows so that they can avoid giving you any other medicines and watch out for over the counter too for anything that may be processed through the kidney.

Q. Will there be a scar?
A. What do you think?

Q. Can you have a baby after donation?
A. Only if you're a girl. But yes, you need to wait one year after donation so that your body can be fully recovered from surgery and has adapted to the use of one kidney.

If anybody thinks of other questions let me know. I'd probably be great for me to find the answers to them if I haven't thought of it already!