Just had my donor evaluation today
It was nine hours long and started terribly. The first thing on my schedule was getting my blood drawn, and apparently after fasting for 12 hours I was dehydrated. They poked me in my good vein on my left arm, and couldn't get any blood, even after readjusting the needle 5 times. Then they tried my right arm and readjusted twice, and hit a nerve. Finally, they tried my right hand which hurt like hell but some blood came out. Unfortunately, by that time I was feeling very faint and started sweating profusely. They had to put a lot of ice packs on me and then they had to stop drawing my blood. Luckily they had gotten enough blood to do my fasting labs.
After labs I got my ekg and chest x-rays done. The people who did them were amazing and super nice.
Then I went on to meet with the transplant surgeon and care coordinator, and while that meeting scared my mom, I think it helped me a lot. He explained that there isn't a difference between taking the right or left kidney, but if I had a preference then they will take whichever one I choose. They also explained that they don't do the testing to see the function of each kidney, because the test isn't completely accurate. Rather they go by GFR and creatinine, which were both really fantastic numbers! He also said that the risk for preeclampsia is about the same for a living donor, as it is for someone who hasn't donated.
I also met with the social worker and nutritionist which went really well. My favorite meeting of the day was with the nephrologist, Dr. Ibrahim (the same one who did the study about pregnancy after donation). He was hilarious and made me feel really comfortable since he joked around with me the whole time. He seemed to think that with all of my numbers I would be donating though, so that's good! He kept saying that the recipient was a lucky guy, and that it was terrific that I'm going to donate. Hopefully he'll be that positive when they do the group meeting next Monday.
The last thing that I had to do was my CT scan, and oh my gosh they should really tell you that when they inject the dye, you are going to feel like you peed yourself. I honestly started thinking, "how am I going to get out of here without everyone finding out that I just wet my pants." Luckily, I hadn't really peed and I was able to leave without being completely embarrassed.
Anyways, just wanted to update you guys. Thank you so much for helping me with my questions before my eval. This website helped me figure out exactly what questions to ask everyone.
Topic: Donor Eval (Read 3775 times)