Friend wants to donate to me

[G1957]

I’m in process of getting on transplant list and was wondering a friend wants to donate a kidney to me and do you still have to do all the tests for transplant even though it is donated. I know we will have to be tested to see if we match.

[Charlene_Coxhead]

What a wonderful thing your friend is trying to do for you.

Technically they dont need to be a match as you could go down the paired exchange programme. There are a number of tests which your friend will need and takes 6 to 12 months, it is a roller coaster of emotions. You will also need to have tests to ensure you have no other health issues. There will also be psychology assessment to for you both. Good luck to you both and keep us all posted.

[DexterLab]

Yes. They still need to know if you are healthy enough for the surgery and healthy enough to be on the immunosuppressive drugs. Testing should be much faster for your donor than for you. They really want to be sure that he has no issues with going from two kidneys to one.

Congratulations on having a donor. It is really an awesome gift.

[WYOAnne NKF Ambassador]

They have to make sure your friend is also healthy enough to donate to you. In my case a cousin was going to donate a kidney and found that he had high blood pressure. That automatically ruled him out. Good that they discovered his high bp, but bad that I didn't get his kidney.

They look first at blood type and then they look at tissue match. There are 6 "markers" that they look to match. The more that match the better and the more successful the transplant. My donor matched 4/6 tissue markers. I don't have to take the high doses of the immunosuppressants that some do because of the match. I am now 19 years post transplant with a creatinine of 0.9! Life is good!

Best of luck with your friend being a healthy match!

[Hidden]

Hi G1957

This is what happen to me. I was starting to get really tired and sleepy I mean really sleepy.,One day

I was having mussel aches all the time and I would take Advil for the pain(BAD IDEA NEVER TAKE ADVIL) So one day I took Advil and the pain did not go away ,I told my wife I think I better go to the hosp,so we went told them I was having chest /mussel pain.

They assessed me and bam.turn the page ,hey bud you are stage 5 renal failure my system was so overloaded with Potassium, phosphorus, sodium,so my kidneys were not cleaning my blood.

Your kidneys clean every drop of blood every 5 min.anyway from being diagnosed to trans plant was 1 year 6 months.

Because they did a bunch of tests in Emergency.i got on list fast. 2 mo.

They will check you and your doner and it will take about 5 months.They will check everything you could imagine.get strong and healthy,it plays a big part in recovery believe me.

Meanwhile you need to get to a Dietision with renal exspearance and stay off dialysis. It's tuff to give up food but you can do it and if you smoke stop now they won't look at you unless you stop smoking.and you will stay off dialisis.A living donor and no dialysis wow that's a perfect scenario. I did the diet thing it was tuff but I dide it. My wife donated to me and she was a match blood and tissue wise (smiles) then bam I found out that her blood vessel was to short for me.and i would need a cadaver blood vessel in with it would increase the chances for Rejection not good.

My wife's numbers were on a national data base and she matched a person who already rejected his first kidney

I was still ok (DIET AGAIN I CAN'T EXSPRESS IT ENOUGH) and for some reason she had a spot in her big heart left for this kid.with a sad eyes she asked me if I could Waite for 5 more months and without a wink I said sure.

So because I did what the doctors and ( DIETITCIAN) said it was no problem. So now where was I to get a kidney the paired donor program was available. So happens my wife's kidney fit him perfect ,and his donor fit me perfect.

So in a nut shell start your diets now and stick with it after trans to and you will have a long life afterwords so ya you do the diet thing after.

Kidneys affect the heart and the heart affects the kidney so get healthy.

SO PLEASE PEOPLE PASS THE WORD GET TESTED YOU ONLEY NEED ONE KIDNEY TO LIVE A NATURAL LIFE.

SPREAD THE WORD WE NEED MORE LIVING DONORS

Hope I dident confuse anyone I'm pro donor

DONORS are the bravest people on the planet period.