Hello there,
I am so glad to have found this group, as I feel a little alone in the outside world in this part of my life.
My mother is on the cusp of full kidney failure, and I decided a few months ago to see if I could possibly be a donor for her. I found out that I was the same blood type as her, which is key since she's an O. Then I convinced her that this is really and truly something I want to do, since she was adament that I not be a donor at first.
Today I turned in the lovely 24 hour urine collection, which had its own humorous moments all along. (They gave me a large orange jug to collect it in -- it looked like and orange juice bottle!) My only downfall is that the directions didn't clearly state that it should be refrigerated, so I kept it on the cold bottom of my bathtub. Hopefully that won't hurt things. I'm scheduled this Thursday and Friday to spend a day and a half in San Francisco for the round of tests and meetings to see if I really am a candidate for her. I'm oddly nervous about it and I don't know why. Not afraid, just wishing someone was going with me, but I'll be on my own for this one. Maybe it's the fear of driving in SF.
So that's me -- wanted to say hello and thought I would jump in with an intro. I look forward to getting to know the community here and am so glad for the opportunity.
Meredith