More Burning Questions Answered!!!

You guys crack me up because you email me these questions and call me with questions and even corner me and ask me. It is so cool!

The number one question after "How are you doing?"  (Very well, two weeks is a lot better than one week, which was not too bad) is "Did you lose any weight after you donated?"  The truth is that I did not eat as much as I normally do for one week, and not working out and so on, so I did lose some weight, but I am sure it will come back very soon. I think the kidney only weighs like half a pound, if that, so that has nothing to do with it.

The second most frequently asked question is: "Do you feel different?" with some people wanting to know exactly about volume and pressure!  No, you cannot tell you have one kidney after the surgery.  There is soreness and odd feelings in the gut (probably from being moved around and dropped on the floor during surgery ..) but my experience has been that everything regarding kidney functions feels the exact same. (No, they really don't drop your guts on the floor but it kind of feels like it for a day or two after surgery.)

Another question I get is "What would have happened if you changed your mind?"  You can change your mind, I would think, right until they put you under.  However, I think once they tell the recipient that there is a donor, it would probably be next to impossible to change your mind, conscience wise.  But if I had to change your mind at any point, I could have with no problem from the transplant team.  The other question asked is if I thought of changing my mind: the answer is no, but I was going to tell them to take them to take me out of the pool once I had a job offer, but then I asked my new job what would happen if I had the opportunity to donate and they said go for it.  Of course, I lucked out and the surgery happened before I started my job.

I also get asked if I can still drink, snowboard, fly (I never could fly, even with a broom) and so on.  People with one kidney can do most things they did before except take Advil, Motrin, Aleve and all the other drugs in that family.  That is kind of a drag, but you get used to Tylenol and the other stuff you can take.

If you play extreme sports, you should wear kidney protection, even if you have two kidneys!

A couple of people have asked me about my thoughts on donating blood, marrow, breast milk, eggs and on and on.  I would be too afraid to donate part of my liver or my lungs.  That is probably because I know next to nothing about it.  I have donated blood, been on the marrow list, donated breast milk but not eggs.  I think that it could be a great gift to someone to donate ovum but I would also think that was somehow my child running around out there.  Even as an adoptive mom who gets what a "real" parent is, I still would wonder about "my" hatchling.  I would be more likely to have donated my body to be a surrogate (I was very good at giving birth in like 20 minutes--I have Both Kinds of Kids) but only in a really perfect situation.  I think it is a personal thing to donate in these ways, and I cannot judge what is right for others or come close to saying anything other than just an opinion! 


A few people have asked me what would have happened if I did not like my recipient.  I think that can happen but I also think that having faith that you will have whatever relationship you are supposed to have, and be thankful for that person, is probably a better approach.  I feel very blessed that we do like each other and have similar views and thoughts and feelings.  My daughter Ren gave him a magnet with some sort of a blessing on it.  She told him she picked it out herself.  He said "I know that your mother would have chosen something tacky".  Absolutely!  I wanted the magnet that said "Takes One To Know One" for him.