Needing a little help clarifying things as a potential donor

[Madam_butterfly]

Hello all im all new to this foruming thingy but could realy use some advise and points of view.
Ok i may be getting a little ahead of myself here but to be armed is to be forwarned (my logical way of thinking about advise)
Two days ago i recieved a call from my mum stating that my aunt has had the all clear to go in for testing in regards to a liver transplant, upon hearing this i had to take a few days to sort out in my head if i should offer a live donation as my mothers liver will be unacceptable due to medical reasons and my brother tends to drink not nessecerily benders but he likes a beer or two every night.  I am 26 living with my partner and my two beautiful 3 and 5yr old little boys. We are currently both between jobs and believe me like most of the uk still grinding away at finding somthing sutable around the children but not at part time hours. so currently we are unemployed i have had some leg pain wich i believe may be ciatica (please excuse the spelling as i am dyslexic any yes i did have to google the spelling  :D )  i no longer drink however i smoke a little roling tobacco. my real question is that i havent had my helth problems checked out yet and i love my aunt dearly would these things make me a possible rejection even if we matched. I havent yet spoken to my aunt about this i didnt want to say anything before to get anyones hope's up if it was unlikley to get to the test matching stage because of my personal factors.  :-\ any advise would be apreciated on this thanks xxx

[jennybebopper]

Welcome to the forum!  This is a great place to get general information & anecdotes, but feel free to contact a transplant center near you for more information.

I am a kidney donor so I can't speak to guidelines to liver donation, but in general donors need to have good baseline health going in.  The transplant center would be able to tell you about specific guidelines; but if smoking is a regular behavior it can very realistically slow down your recovery and the center would have to consider that.  I would assume centers in the UK are similar to the US in that all information about potential donors (including family) is kept confidential at your discretion.  So, you should be able to contact a center, get some questions answered, and potentially be tested without them having to tell your aunt anything.  Here you can proceed with the testing up until you're under the knife and if you change your mind, they just let the recipient know there was something that came up in your tests so there is less burden on you with your family members.

Finances shouldn't have to be a factor to consider for donors, but unfortunately it is.  I know here all medical expenses are covered by the recipient's insurance, so you don't pay for anything related to your surgery itself.  That being said, there are costs you will have to be prepared for.  It's a big surgery and you won't be paid for lost wages.  You will also need someone available to be your caretaker for a while.  Travel costs might need to be budgeted for too, if you aren't near a transplant center.  I know here there are some programs to assist with many of these costs.  Again, your transplant center would be able to give you some good resources.

All the nuts & bolts aside, this is a big decision for you and your family.  Read through this forum, there is a lot to consider.  If you want to investigate further, give a transplant center a call.  They should be able to give you a lot of information without sharing anything with your aunt and hopefully will be able to answer many of your questions.  Best of luck to both you and your aunt!

[WilliamLFreeman]

Madam_Butterfly,

You are writing quite well -- we understand!

In addition to what jennybebooper wrote, since you are in the UK (Britain, Scotland, Wales, or N. Ireland), I assume your medical coverage is covered by UK's National Heatlh Service.  I think more serious for you will be the time from family & work to go through the evaluation process -- and, if you donate part of your liver, the time needed for recovery, in which you will not be able physically to yourself take care of your 3 & 5 year old sons.  Also, if you and your partner are thinking of having another child, you should take with the Transplant Center about how a living liver donation may affect child-bearing.

You also should know that donating part of a liver is more dangerous to the donor's health, and with a higher chance of severe or long-lasting complications, than is donating a kidney.

If you can stop smoking now or soon, and stay off smoking through surgery, the surgery will be easier.  Unless your prior drinking caused liver damage, social drinking (one drink a day for women) even at present is usually not considered a health problem that would disqualify you from donating.

As jennybebooper wrote, please speak to the Center concerning your medical history.  In addition, I/we encourage you to ask the Center to give you the name of one or more living liver donors, to learn from them their own experience of the evaluation and then donation surgery.

Bill