Interesting (and disturbing) that there are no set protocols or FDA guidelines for evaluation of donors. It seems like each hospital does whatever tests they feel are necessary and also make their own standards in terms of cut offs and risk factors. At Hopkins, I was never offered a test to check the individual function of my kidneys nor was I aware that a test like this is available until after the surgery. I would have liked to have known the percentage, hoping that I kept the stronger one. This to me, is more of a consent issue, even over the surgical details that Donna described in a previous post. When I signed my consent form, I was under the impression that my kidneys would be able to compensate and that full testing was done to determine this. If there are other tests available, even if they are expensive, and not offered to the donor patient, that violates consent, as it did not allow me to consider all options.
What hospital did you donate at? Were you satisfied with your care? I would like to see a "Consumer Report" type of assessment of each transplant center so that donors (and their recipients) can choose what level of care they would like to have. Something that maybe we can do on LDO as we have so many donors in one forum who can respond.
Sherri