Kidney Donation Process - Part I

How long does it take to donate your kidney? What are all the tests and exams like? What if I am donating far from home? How much does it cost?
This video talks about the first stages of the kidney donation process, from reaching out to a transplant center (a hospital) and some of the first tests. This is part one of three to walk through the timeline below.
My timeline summary is below!
12JUN19 Registration w NKR
12JUN19 Initial NKR questionnaire submission
24JUN19 Local Quest blood draw, 24 hr urine jug submission & urine sample
26JUN19 Approval of initial results, invitation to select NKR transplant center
26JUN19 Select Cleveland Clinic as NKR transplant center of choice
02JUL19 Call from Cleveland Clinic transplant coordinator to review application
18JUL19 Arrangement of 2-day eval appointments at Cleveland Clinic
22JUL19 Arrival of second CC 24 hr urine jug + info packet for Stage 2 testing
26JUL19 Cleveland Clinic social worker check in call
01AUG19 First day of Cleveland Clinic Donor Evaluation
02AUG19 Second day of Cleveland Clinic Donor Evaluation
05AUG19 Bioethics appt, virtual
06AUG19 Send surgery preference calendar to Coordinator and check in
06AUG19 Final test results arrive at Cleveland Clinic
09AUG19 Donor committee review of my case and test results
12AUG19 Medical approval call
AUG19 Surgeon and Coordinator call - matched to 10 year old :*)
21AUG19 Confirmed hotel reimbursement 4 nights, suggested 8OCT date
30AUG19 Confirmed 8OCT date, emailed coworkers & notified leaders
05SEP19 Pityriasis rosea diagnosis (???)
10SEP19 Final call - recipient is male teen on deceased donor list, no donor chain
16SEP19 Local blood draw for tissue typing tests
23SEP19 Pre-operative testing onsite at Cleveland Clinic
07OCT19 Surgical intake testing
08OCT19 Surgery!
10OCT19 Discharge from hospital
13OCT19 Go home
Some helpful links for those of you in the US, UK or India!
Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network - USA
optn.transplan...
Canadian Blood Services - Contact information for your province - CA
blood.ca/en/or...
For India, a good hub for information is organindia.org
www.organindia...
Donor to Donor Organization Website (resource for people considering donating)
www.donortodon...
Active Facebook group for Living Donors
/ 2246296390

[@lyddibitz]

Thank you so much for this! My two day appointment is in November. I really appreciate you going into so much detail. I’m not nervous just anxious to get this done and be able to give a better life to someone. My transplant coordinator is amazing and has made the process go so smoothly. Amazing what you did. ❤️

[@lloydtatendachiremba9351]

How did it go

[@Trinchris1]

Great information. My husband has Stage 5 Kidney disease and is I. Need of a Kidney

[@clintsprague3512]

I'm in the process of going through everything now to donate a kidney and it's so awesome that you've done that ❤

[@markhill9275]

My questions for you, as i am looking to donate for a friend, the big one is Why? What made you decide to donate? What was your process of actually coming to this decision. It appears you were donating to a previously unkown person?

[@mobanstudio3695]

Yes I donated to an unknown person. I preferred it that way. If you think all people are equals - which I can't pretend I always act on but I at least aspire to - then kidney donation of all decisions ought to reflect as much. That's why I wanted to yield the recipient selection to the bioethics committees. I think being very sick as a kid 1) led me to deeply empathize with others who have chronic illness 2) helped me be more comfortable with medical procedures. Best of luck!

[@markhill9275]

​@mobanstudio3695 Well, i'm further down the road, i am actually a match, but being 68, they have been very strong on the blood pressure thing, which i am high, but they think it can be controlled with 1 med. (already had changed my lifestyle and eating habits, so hopefully i won't need the med for long term!). I am 3-4 hrs from St Louis Uni Hospital, and have dogs and kitties that it is hard to be away overnight from, so they are doing my testing in one day. Labs, xray, CT Scan, then meetings. What im wondering, first, you are 2 years? out now, how are you feeling, how has it affected your lifestyle, do you have any cons with hindsight. All i seem to get is rose coloured glasses type reports on line. I am very motivated to do this, but my overriding criteria is that it doesn't change what a can and can't do. Having said that i'm getting older, and factor that in. I'm just hoping fro different viewpoints, i want to be as informed as possible, so if i find something that doesn't fit then i will rethink my decision. Due diligence if you like. Again i'm very motivated to do this, just wanting as much input as possible. Many thanks for making your vids, they are helping and giving me food for thought and motivation

[@rkem139]

I did a non-directed donation and I heard a pretty good analogy. If you are approved, it means you are so healthy that you essentially have the equivalent of a winning lotto ticket that in all likelihood you can never cash out, but someone else can. Way I looked at it, is that if I needed an organ and one was offered I would accept it, but I was lucky enough that the situation was reversed. It seemed morally consistent to give what I would have accepted.

[@MiySadochok]

Can be a lonely person , who does not have a family in the country, be a donor?

[@RabindraDhami-nu7yi]

Hello