The secret is out! I’ll be donating to my husband’s cousin:)
Hi everyone! Long time listener, first time caller:)
Last year in Aug, my husband’s cousin let us know he was put on the kidney transplant list. My husband and I (47yo) immediately did the preliminary testing and then we didn’t hear anything for months. His cousin was still doing ok, and let us know there were some people getting the “deep dive testing” for donation.
Then I got a call in early May to see if I was still interested; the others hadn’t panned out. Of course I’d do it! My only concern was timing - my eldest daughter was going off to college at the end of Aug., and I wanted to be healed enough to be there for her. It would also be great to have her around for my recovery since I also have a 2.5yo.
The other tricky factor was that I’m taking the summer off of work, and would be going back after my daughter leaves for college. Wishful thinking that it would be a crazy fast process:) The medical selection committee meeting was postponed for a few weeks.
I got the call that I’m a perfect match! All 6 HLAs match up! We had them over for dinner and surprised them with the news that he’s getting a healthy kidney. They were SHOCKED since we didn’t tell them anything besides the initial blood draw that happened a year prior. I didn’t want to say anything until there was something to say. It was fantastic to be able to give them this news:)
Luckily his cousin’s (very low) gFRs have somewhat plateaued, so they want to push the surgery off as long as possible before he gets really sick while still staying within the timeline of my results being current. When he has surgery it will start a new timeline…
I’ve turned down the job that I had lined up (it just wasn’t a great fit longterm for our family) so now we are looking at next spring, pending his lab results. If he starts to drop, of course we’ll move the surgery up sooner.
Another factor I was concerned about was my toddler. I still nurse her at bedtime and morning time, and I’ve never spent the night away from her. But luckily she’ll probably be done nursing and will be in a much better position to stay home with Papa next spring.
For anyone nursing and donating, I researched this pretty hard, and it looks like I would have been fine to continue to nurse shortly after the surgery itself, (or pump and dump at least to keep up supply until I would get home.)
I have zero reservations about the surgery, I was only concerned about timing and the toddler. Looks like both will be alright! The surgeon at UCSF was a kidney donor himself 18 years ago! And he’s getting worked up to be a living liver donor now.
UCSF has a great transplant team:) Looking forward to next spring!!
Enjoy the reveal! https://share.icloud.com/photos/096eILbA5wjJ3BqgNXunVg4OA