r/kidneydonors

Hi everyone!

I’m a first-year medical student at Tufts with a background in nephrology research. I’m working on an AI-powered chatbot/platform aimed at making the living kidney donation process easier to navigate, and I’d love to learn from people who have gone through it.

If you’re a living kidney donor, even a quick 10-minute conversation about your experience, challenges, or things that could have been improved would be incredibly helpful.

Please PM me if you’d be open to chatting. Thanks so much!

I apologize if this has been mentioned (I did search but it’s kind of specific). I am three months post op so I’m entering my first summer with one kidney. I like to take walks after lunch but I’ve noticed with the hotter temps that I am so nauseous after being outside and have had a headache almost every day. I’m drinking a lot of water so I don’t think it’s dehydration. Anybody experienced this or is it unrelated to the kidney donation?

Got medically cleared to donate to my 18mo old who has kidney disease, pending CT results, but after looking at the CT report on mychart I’m pretty sure this will disqualify me.

Left kidney: two renal arteries with early bifurcation; single vein with no late confluence. 2. Right kidney: two renal arteries with borderline early bifurcation; single vein with no late confluence. 3. Multiple (>5 on the left and 1 on the right) low density renal lesions too small to characterize but likely small cysts. These are more numerous than expected for age and could indicate early onset of polycystic kidney disease.

We have done genetic testing because of my son and it was negative for PKD.

Turning 81 this summer. I've been reading more posts as I get closer to my final day of evaluation (day after memorial day). I haven't found any specific to the issue of age. Even though I think of myself in good shape, I suspect recovery might be slower and more difficult. Anything else I should be aware of?

What was your experience?
How long did you wait?
What bloodtypes were you and your exchange donor?

My brother is donating for me but he’s not compatible so we’re doing paired exchange. It’s been 7 months since we heard anything.

(Ignore poor english)

I am 18m mother 39 f she is on dialysis for 2 years now, on dialysis thrice a week diagnosed with ckd

Reason is i am unsure of survival rate of kidney amd she is kinda ignorant towards diet and medication , she dont even take BP tablets untill she ends up ICU

Her diet is verry poor she dont eat nonveg, ever after constantly trying to force she wouldnt even eat eggs just bcz she dont like it, even if i somehow manage to give veg options she just dont eat bcz she dont like the taste of it

Now i am thinking i wont be living with her after due to study and work reasons and my father is not available at home even if he do he dont bother to do things

And even if i somehoe manage it i am sure she wont be taking post transplant medication when she dont even take basic BP tabs, AND HYPOTHETICALLY assumming even if she do i am only buying 10-15 years max

Another poing she is tobacco addict and i have tried my ass off to get her out of habbit but i am not able to and i wont be in my lifetime

I am verry concerned about my body / health i take care of it so much, i avoid every single thing that can harm my body , and i also dont want any medical complexity due to donating

Thats why i am being hesistant, what should i do

I'm a year out from donation and my husband and I are starting to plan a family. The nephrology team is very supportive, but my OBGYN thinks I'm going to get preeclampsia and die.

I would love to hear your experiences post donation.

Completed my donation 05/12/2026 (holy shit cannot believe it wasn't even a full 96 hours ago, feels like a month rofl). Some thoughts as I sit up typing this in bed:

1. I really wish I had been better prepared for how gassy and bloated I would be. To me, that was worse than the flat pain, haha. Didn't even touch my at home oxy but I would have killed for some gas-x or something.

2. Definitely trying to process a lot of emotion. I'm a little disappointed that my first feeing I really remember is more of a "oh god, should I really have done that?", but the more the pain and the gassiness subsides, the more positive my feelings get about the whole thing.

3. Apparently, I'm funny (per the RN, not per me, literally don't remember it) when I'm high as tits and coming out of anesthesia. I don't even remember PACU at all but apparently the med surg nurse could hear me on the other end when PACU called to give report before sending me up.

4. I was definitely overhyped on the pain, but I tend to have a decent pain tolerance. When I was younger I had a liver abscess drained and the pus spread a bit in my system and caused convulsions - I was in so much pain I couldn't will myself to move my diaphragm enough to breathe. Compared to that, the immediate pain control in the hospital + Tylenol made this a breeze in terms of pain.

Overall, 10/10, would do again. I hope whoever got the thing is happy with it, haha.

As someone who's looking for a kidney, I just wanted to say thank you for helping someone ♥️

For me, going into donation, one of my biggest concerns was how quickly I would recover and when I would be able to get back to strength training/exercise. I'm a very active person and was in the process of trying to put on some muscle before donation.

I wanted to come back to say that I'm just a little over 1 year post donation and in the best shape of my life. I took my time recovering, but once I felt good, I got back to it and haven't stopped. I definitely think donating gave me extra motivation to come back even stronger and prove that donating doesn't hold us back.

I know this isn't everyone's experience and I was lucky to have a great support system. Just wanted to share in case some people are worried about long-term effects or impact on fitness.

Hey everyone! I'm currently going through screening to be a nondirected donor (fingers crossed) and I was wondering whether any other nondirected donors could speak to how much they tell you about your recipient. I know for liver, you can donate specifically to a kid if you want to, which I think would be cool (tbc I'll donate to anyone if I'm not given the option of pediatric donation...not trying to be picky...)...Also, do you get to find out if you're part of a kidney chain?
Thanks so much for any info!

Hi everyone, I met with the surgeon yesterday regarding my kidney donation, and he said that after donation, you will lose some core strength. He said it will be at about 90% of what it was. This isn’t a dealbreaker for me, but I’m just curious. I’ve been working really hard on my core strength, so I’m wondering what other people experienced after donation.

Thank you for any insight!

“I’m curious what practical or emotional preparation helped donors feel more ready for the process, recovery, and lifestyle adjustments afterward.”

I recently ran a marathon where I passed a man that had a kidney donor tattoo on the back of his leg. Obviously, this led to a conversation and a quick hug before I carried on. He told me his goal is influence at least 1 person to donate in his life and that the tattoo was a great conversational started. Curious if other people have tattoos for the same reason? I'm debating it.

My uncle, a physician, has CKD. He is 71. I am 54. I appear to be the only person in my family who is stepping up to be a living donor. I am a parent, a competitive distance runner, and I selfishly care about my health and athletic performance. I don’t want to do this but I do because I love my uncle. His daughter is 41 and hopes to have kids one day so doesn’t want to be a donor. My uncle is super knowledgeable as a physician so if I decide while going through screening that I don’t want to go forward, I feel like he will find out why—I don’t want to do it-so I really feel that I have to do this to save his life, and no one else is stepping up.

What were your must haves during your stay? Anything you wish you had brought? I figure I’ll pack a sun dress to wear home since putting on pants might be uncomfortable. Do you wear a hospital gown during the entire stay?

To be short, I have a relative who was on dialysis and received a kidney transplant and had it in for a while, I am not sure exactly how long. Later , he moved away from his home state and this is where it gets cloudy, but I know he stopped taking his medicines for about 4 years not sure why but he recently had a stroke and he isn't doing very well at all as you can imagine. He is going to be taken to a transplant hospital to have the donated kidney removed and put back on a list and back on dialysis, but will obviously be put at the bottom so the hospital is supposed to give a list of "private" donor websites to review and hopefully be able to find a donor meeting his criteria, that they will be sending, if the hospital doesn't first.

I just wanted any advice that you possibly have for me so I can help my relative . I don't know much about any of this process and just would like to be pointed in the correct direction. Thank you!

Hello,

There is a high possibility I will be getting a kidney transplant in the near future due to my mom being a living donor. Has anyone had experience with a transplant recovery? I’m also nervous about the large scar and how it will affect my other chronic illnesses (rheumatoid arthritis and Hashimoto’s).