Has Anyone Been a Kidney Donor?

One of my dearest friends donated a kidney to her uncle many years ago. She was in her early 30s at the time.

It has not impacted her life in any significant way at this point, several years post. She sees her doctor regularly and goes to her nephrologist once a year to review her labs and make sure everything is okay. So far, all is well.

My husband had a kidney removed two years ago, not to donate, but because of damage and ultimate failure of the kidney due to repeated kidney stones, surgeries to remove the stones, and built-up scar tissue. So, I can tell you about the surgery side from his experience.

The surgery was not particularly complicated, but he was in operating for quite some time. Even though he was the first surgery of the morning, it seemed like I was in the waiting room forever! But really, it was just about two hours. It just seemed long waiting to be able to see him in recovery. Keep in mind that having a kidney removed in order to donate might be a bit longer surgery.

He was in the hospital for a couple of days and was given appropriate meds for pain management, so there were no complaints about pain. He recovered well with no complications. He was up and around when he came home, but he did have to take it easy. No lifting, no exercising, no golf for a few weeks.

He travels about three out of four weeks for work, so he was grounded from all air travel for about three weeks. After that, he was back at his usual routine with no problems.

He also goes to his urologist and nephrologist, but even more regularly than my friend who donated. He has had some issues with some of his labs levels, so his doctors keep close watch on that.

Hope that helps. It's very kind of you to think of donating.

A girlfriend of mine was able to donate one of her kidney's to her husband...talk about serendipity!!

There is a battery of psychological tests a donor has to go through. ESPECIALLY because death is a REAL possibility and the psychological toll is hard. Her recovery was NOT easy - it was a good 8 to 10 weeks. She is fine now. It's been 5+ years. Her husband is doing well (thank God).

The surgery was long. The exams prior to - including the mental checks were difficult and stressful. Part of it was she was TRYING to help her husband and this process literally took months.

I don't know WHO the deciding factor is. I believe it goes by the seriousness of the persons illness. Since you are NOT the patient? I don't know what any doctor or hospital can tell you - they would most likely give you hypothetical situations.

I wish your friend luck!

Donating now is even easier. They can do it thru a laparoscope. I had to have a kidney out but they could not do it laparoscopically because of many previous surgeries. Laparoscopic is a much easier surgery. Hope your friend gets her wish.

A close friend of mine did this for her uncle. I would say it was really intense and the recovery was harder then expected. She had to take a leave of absence from work which was expected. Just recently, she was in a car accident and had to be really careful about taking any narcotics for the pain apparently because of the transplant.

A friend of mine was up close and personal with this. Her husband donated a kidney to someone. It went well. They had the surgery and he quickly recovered and was back at work right on schedule. I think the docs that do the transplant would have a lot of details about what to expect and stuff though.

The docs that did my friend's hubby sat them down and talked to them quite a bit. They knew just what to expect and what to do if something happened that wasn't right on the right track. They stayed in the City for a while, maybe a week after he was out of the hospital just so they'd be right there if he had anything go wrong. There wasn't even a glitch.