Say, Brother, Can You Spare a [s]Dime[/s] Kidney · 2:04am Dec 7th, 2018
Hey, it’s me. Y’know, that one guy you had a mildly diverting conversation with three years ago, decided to follow, and promptly forgot about because he never put out any content whatsoever? Yeah, him! Hi! I have rather a personal request and if you want to read it, it’s below the break. If not, that’s cool, just go about your business.
So, I’ve been dealing with an autoimmune condition that’s been slowly destroying my kidneys for the last ten years or so, and I’m now at that magic point where I’m eligible for a kidney donation, but I still don’t quite need dialysis.
Dialysis, for those who aren’t aware is where they take out your blood, run it through a big machine that takes out waste products before topping off your fluids and shoving it all back in you. This needs to be done about three times a week for the rest of your life. And that is a depressingly short time as the survival rates after ten years of dialysis are distressingly low (~10%).
So, naturally, I would love to avoid that whole thing entirely. Which leads me to transplants. First of all, there’s the UNOS registry that tries to place recently orphaned organs into new loving homes. Unfortunately, there’s a five to ten year waiting list for kidneys at the moment.
So the first thing I’m going to ask of all of you is to become organ donors. You don’t need any of it after you’re dead, and your spare parts can treat and save dozens of people. Also, make sure your family knows you want to be a donor since they’ll likely be the ones making the decision in the moment. If this post does nothing else I’d like to pass on that message.
That’s cadaver donation, but all of you non-dead people out there can help, too! Many organs can be donated by alive people. Hearts are problematic. It’s mostly things like kidneys where you have a spare, or livers which regrow like sea stars. You can cut off a lobe, stick it in someone else, and both pieces regrow into full sized livers. Isn’t biology keen?
Now, cadaver donation is great, but living donation is greatly preferred. For one thing, the organs last longer on average, and for another thing you can avoid the 5-10 year wait. The procedure can be done as soon as you find a sucker wonderful, loving, giving person that is compatible with you.
“Ah,” you say, “here it comes.” Yeah, I’m actually begging for organs on the Internet. I figured that I have all of these multiple tens of people that have decided to follow me, and I decided to throw this out there at you guys. If you’re relatively healthy and would be willing to give a relative stranger a vital organ you can visit [url=“houstonmethodistlivingdonor.org”]this website and fill out the questionnaire. My name is Justin Reilly, dob 7/20/77. If, on the other hand, you are sane, I’d love it if you at least reblogged this. I just have this general preference for living over dying and my wife and daughter appear to share the sentiment at least four days out of the week.
At the very least, thanks for reading.
Just found this today after seeing your comment on Fuzzy'z blog. As someone who's had kidney issues in the past, it caught my attention and so I ended up here, reading this blog. Since I only have one kidney left, I am personally unable to help, (plus I live very far away) but I do wish you the best of luck in finding a match. Also, I will forward this to someone I know in the medical donation field here in Canada who might have a connection with some folks in the USA. It's a long shot, but there's really nothing to lose by trying.
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Hey thanks, man. Thankfully, earlier today I heard the news that my cousin had been accepted as a living donor. We don’t know if she’s a match yet, but the hospital I’m working with has one of the largest and most successful swap programs in the States. Gods willing I’ll be going under the knife before May.
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Ah, that’s good to hear. The person I sent this to got back to me already, and they suggested checking out this organization; is this the swap program you’re referring to?