My kidney...your life.

It's my kidney, but its your life - that's the tag line to my experience of trying to become a living kidney donor. It is true to say that living donors save lives, I wanted to be part of such a worthwhile activity. Sadly, giving up a kidney while I'm still breathing isn't going to be an option for me, but I carry a donor card, I've registered online and so, when I depart this ball of water, gas and rock, its open season on my body and its inner bits and bobs. Come and take them, I wont need them, but someone else may very well be in need of them, I hope they get them.  

Just to clarify the situation, I had another GFR test, which I had to have done privately and pay for myself, as the NHS wouldn't pay for another one for me, one was enough for them. The second test showed that, whilst my kidneys work, they are, well lets just say, a tad slow. Indeed my GFR rate in the second test was slightly lower than the previous one, which wasn't what I had hoped and proved that living donation wasn't an option. According to the NHS Choices site my GFR rate would indicate I'm on the boarder between stage 2 and stage 3a of CKD - chronic kidney disease, so perhaps its just as well no one else is going to get one of 'em while I'm still kicking.  

You might think that all this would have put me off donating organs, but nope, it hasn't, in fact it has made me see just how important it is that we all become organ donors, because you never know when you might need something. So if you are thinking about going dopwn the living kidney donation route, I urge you to do so. It is easy to do and as I've proved all the tests are painless, pleasant and pretty easy to deal with. So why not do it? 

  

Its the waiting time....

It has been a beautiful clear Sunday down here in Brighton, the sky a majestic blue colour unblemished by even a single cloud and whilst it was cold it wasn't bitterly so. Perfect for an energetic stroll along the promenade and around the port at Shoreham. The waves of the English Channel broke over the beach with a gentle and comforting sploushh and all my cares and woes melted away.  I must admit that I have been feeling a touch anxious over the last few days,  we’re getting closer to the date for my GFR and Renogram examinations and whist I'm not worried at all about the actual tests themselves,  I am about the results, I just hope they are ok,  that my kidneys are in a good enough shape for one of them to be snipped out for someone else to have.  I suppose that sort of feeling is normal,  many donors probably go through exactly the same thought process, you know, we've read up about the tests themselves,  so we have a clear understanding of what they entail and all that, in fact so much so that the only unknown quantity is the results!  

It is a little odd this sort of worry or concern, you see for once in my selfish life I'm not worried or concerned about the results for myself,  but for someone else, some unknown stranger.  To be honest I'm not at all bothered about my glomerular filtration rate or indeed what size and shape my little kidneys are in,  it matters not a jot to me on a personal level honestly, but it does to that unknown stranger,  that person who will eventually get one of them,  well without wishing to be melodramatic about it,  but to them the results of my tests could be the difference between life and death!  Now that I've written that down I know it might sound a little silly, you know to be so worried about someone you've never met or ever likely to meet, but I guess that’s all part of this whole donation journey.  Although I have to say that I suppose this is one of those unusual benefits of altruistic donation,  the fact I don’t know who my kidney is going to go to,  for if I did,  such worries and concerns would multiply by at least a hundred and that must be hell to cope with.  Especially as all the tests seem to take a long time in coming around, on average one every fortnight,  therefore such a wait must be agonising if you’re watching a loved one slowly get sicker day by day.  Hence, I suppose upon reflection, I should be really grateful that I don’t have that sort of added anguish or concern,  I should just be content it’s all ticking along and so far all the tests have been good and each one is one step further along this journey,  I just wish it would go a little blooming faster!