Magic

[ohtobeahayes]

There was magic last night!
First of all, I want to acknowledge the kick butt donors out there who work so hard doing research and fighting to make donation better for everyone involved. I am admittedly on the way opposite end of it---not that that is right OR wrong.  I just have an incredible inability to not have my head in the clouds and I have a faith that things will work out exactly as they should, for better or worse. So THANK YOU! If everyone were as non concerned as I am, we'd be in a world of trouble! I know my family wishes I'd be a little more concerned... 

Last night I got to be with the whole kidney chain at the National Kidney Foundation fund raiser. I spoke at it! And I got to honor the other donors and recipients and I LOVED IT to pieces (when it was over, very nervous beforehand!)  Here's some of the magic:

I went to the transplant clinic in Jan 2010 for my very first appointment.  The receptionist was rifling through papers and asked "what are you here for today?" and I kinda whispered "I'm going to donate a kidney".  It was hard being in the transplant clinic, because you forget that you LOOK healthy until you see so many people who are struggling, and it was a busy morning there. I stuck out like a sore thumb a little bit. I felt a little shy about my health. Anyway, when I said it, there was a woman and man sitting off to the side and the woman had been staring at me intently, and she'd heard me. She had started pointing to her husband and whisper joked "Pick him! Pick him!" That actually gave me tears later because I felt so sad.....

Bob, one of the recipients in the chain, came over to me and said "I didn't get to ask you this last time...but it was you, I just know it was...." and a second later his wife comes over and says "Did he ask you? It was you, I know it was...".....they went on to ask me if I remembered a day at the transplant clinic in January, when I'd said I was there to donate a kidney....

It was them! They were the ones sitting there....I can tell you where they were sitting and everything. I'd told Cullen how sad I'd been when that happened...

Bob DID get a kidney!!!!!!!!  Because of my donation!!!  His niece donated to another in the chain because she wasn't a match for him.

It's MAGIC! And an awful lot of hard work on the part of coordinators and surgeons and nurses and everyone involved- unimaginable, I believe. But...magic.

Nicki

[Fr Pat]

Dear Nicki,
     Great story!
     Another great place to experience what organ donation (from living or deceased donors) can do is the "U.S. Transplant Games", although the location of the next Games in 2012 has not yet been announced. The Games gather a couple of thousand recipients, donor families and living donors for athletic events, ceremonies, talks, etc. There were a couple of hundred living donors at the last Games, and it is quite an extraodinary expereince to "one of the gang" instead of an oddity.
     It is important to be aware of the risks and the deficiencies in living donation (and to make sure that potential donors are aware also) but that doesn't take away from the joy and satisfaction of donating. Celebrate!
          Fr. Pat

[Sarah in Maine]

What a great story!

Yes, the risks are there, and they are real.  Yes, the informed consent and follow-up could all be a hell of a lot better -- and huge kudos to those who work for that.  But there are hundreds of thousands of wonderful miracles in the stories of living donation over the years.  And knowing that there is some chance of that is what makes it worth all of the risks and unknowns. 

[Aries7]

This is such a delightful story Nicki!! Thank you so much for sharing!!

Linda