Larry is doing fantastic! The kidney is still working wonderfully for him, he even got the courage to send back his dialysis machine and the rest of the equipment. His former dialysis room is once again in its former glory as his music/entertainment room.  I’m sure that was a huge step in his recovery, both physically and mentally.

Overall, this has been an amazing experience. I’ve experienced the incredible  generosity of both family and friends, witnessed my husband being my strongest supporter and best friend and learned more about myself along the way.

I’ve  had many say they didn’t know if they could do what I did. My response to that is you don’t know until you are in the situation. I hope you never have to to, because that means everyone you know and love is healthy. But if you do know someone, I hope my experience can help you with your decision. It’s not for everyone. Five years ago,  even two years ago – it was not for me. Many family members stepped up long before I did, willing to help Larry. But because of health reasons, they couldn’t. But their courage should be acknowledged and not forgotten. I just had to come to a point in my life where I was ready to explore the possibility.

I will post again as I continue along this journey. My goal is to get back into training and do an Olympic distance triathlon in July. Wish me luck!

I have the honor of working with a very special woman, Ella.  She was the recipient of a kidney, given in the most heartbreaking but generous gift of a teenage girl’s parents. They turned their tragedy into a gift of a normal life for a stranger.  Here are Ella’s words: “15 years and 7 months ago I got the call.  I can remember my husband’s words today, he said, “I thought you had won the lottery.” I did, the lottery of life and that’s so much better than millions of dollars…It has been almost 16 years and I still think of my donor and her family unselfish act.”

If you haven’t already, sign the back of your driver’s license today! I just had to share her story and quote, so moving and impactful. Thank you, Ella.

Recovery Update:

Wow! It’s officially been a week since the surgery and there have been both good and bad days.  And good mornings and bad afternoons.  But I think that is normal with all recoveries from surgery.  I made the mistake of doing too much the first few days home and now I’m listening to some wise advice: Rest more in hopes of a faster recovery. 

My mom, dad, husband and friends have been incredible and I’m the luckiest donor to have them in my life.  They have catered to my every need by making me comfortable, making meals, and taking care of the kids.  All I do is sit back and reap the benefits of good food and watching my kids play. Life is so hectic and busy, I honestly can’t think of the last time I’ve stopped and just enjoyed them (without worring about cooking dinner, homework, baths, bedtime, etc.). Ironically, this has given me that opportunity.

Am I still in pain? Yes. Am I frustrated? Yes. Is it still worth it? Yes! Larry is keeping me posted and he is doing amazing. He is fascinated by how much energy he has compared to before.  As my Aunt Shirley put it, “He hasn’t felt normal in so long, he forgot what it felt like.”  She summed it up in just one sentence, he just wants to be normal again.  Have a normal life.

Here’s to being normal again! Take care, Jeni Lind

Picture of Larry and I before heading home

It’s Monday and surgery was last Thursday.  It all went smoothly, Larry and I both checked in at 5:30am that morning.  At that point, I was past being scared or nervous, just ready. We both got a little emotional as we separated to go into surgery but I went with the feeling of being committed and right with my decision.  After it was all over, my surgeon told my husband, ” The kidney was just beautiful.” That makes me smile.  It went to work immediately for Larry with no hesitation.  Some kidneys take a few hours or days to wake up, but not this one.  I guess my little pep talk to my kidney before worked.

When I woke up, my first question was how Larry was doing.  They said he was grinning ear from ear and actually glowing.  Indeed, I got to see him the next day and he looked healthier than I ‘ve ever seen him.  That alone makes this whole experience worth it and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

There were a few bumps along my recovery starting with when I first woke up.  I’m still not sure if it was intentional but the only pain medication I was given initially was morphine to be administered by me pushing a button every ten minutes.  That made me terrified to sleep, as I afraid to wake up in even more pain.  After me, my mom and husband arguing with some of the nursing staff, they finally called the doctor to order another form of pain medicine that did not rely on me pushing a button.  Finally, almost 10 ten hours post surgery, I was able to fall asleep in peace.  The next day did not get much better as I had practically beg my nurse for pain and nausea medicine which resulted in me getting sick twice before she did something about it.   From the very beginning I was told to expect a lot of pain but was reassured I would be given whatever I needed to take it away. I plan to be blunt with my surgeon when I see him next week for a post-surgery appointment. Maybe he will listen and future donors will receive improved pain treatment. But in no way do I want this to deter anyone from thinking of donating, just be clear abut your expectations and talk to your doctors and nurses about your needs.

Now I promised to be completely honest in this blog.  It was not all bad. Yes, the first two days were horrible but then I got some amazing nurses, Sylvia, Mary and Princess, who truly cared about their patients and got me on the road to recovery. In addition, getting up and walking to Larry’s room allowed me to see how great he was doing.  I was showered with tons of flowers from family, friends and coworkers which helped the room feel more like home.

I’m recovering from home and each day feel a little bit better.  The key is to move around, get plenty of rest and water.  Thanks to the generosity of our friends, meals are being delivered to help out.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you kind souls.

So now I’ll being catching up on my favorite Today show, coffee, comfort food, reading and movies. I’ll keep you posted but it probably won’t be exciting.

Signing off with one kidney and doing fabulous! Jeni

To my wonderful husband and best friend, thank you for understanding and supporting this decision.  Through all of this I kept repeating if you changed your mind, I would completely understand and not do this.  But your support has been unwavering and simply, I love you.

Thank you for my wonderful children who make me smile everyday and are my motivation to recover quickly.

Thank you to my mom and dad who are dropping everything to take care of me, Kurt and the kids.  Tomorrow will be especially hard for mom as both her daughter and baby brother will be in surgery. I’m so fortunate to have such awesome parents!

Thank you to our family and friends for not once questioning our decision, showing such generosity and for sending many thoughts and prayers our way.

And last but not least, thank you to my left kidney. You can been good to me over the last 34 years and you need to be even better for Larry.  You are going from one fighter to another and I have high expectations for you.  I expect nothing less from one of my kidneys.

I will now sign off the last time with two kidneys – There will be no “goodbyes” so…

See you later and we will post after the surgery! Jeni

My surgeon is a very a nice man but I feel even better about his long list of credentials that includes Harvard Medical School.  I won’t lie, I’m very nervous.  He went through a long list of risks, which are very low risks, but they are there nonetheless.  As he put it “We have whittled it down to 1 in (insert number) but we can’t promise zero. We don’t have a crystal ball.” However, I went into this decision knowing and accepting the risks. Every time I turn on my car and leave the driveway, I take a risk. That is what life is about: taking chances.  At then end of our appointment the surgeon said something I begged to argue with: “I’ve listed all the risks and there are no benefits to you as the donor.” I understood where he was coming from – his priority is me – his patient, not the recipient. But I beg to differ. The greatest benefit to me is the wonderful feeling I have right now knowing I’m helping Larry, it just feels right. 

In the last few weeks, we’ve slowly let the word out to our family and friends. Their reaction has been wonderful and the comments have been over the top. Sure I want to tell my family and friends so they know what is going on. But my main goal through all of this is to get the word out about living donations and maybe help someone else make that decision. Did you know there are over 100,000 people on the national transplant list right now, waiting for a kidney? On average, approx. 14,000 kidney transplants are done each year.  Only about 5,000 of those are from living donors and that number is decreasing every year.

So, the waiting game continues. As promised, I will be honest and upfront about this experience. So…am I nervous? Yes! Am I scared? Yes!

Am I excited? Yes!

I am 34 years old, a mom of two awesome kids – ages 2 & 6, wife of an equally awesome man, have a pretty good career going, a runner, an only child, somewhat outgoing, and like to think I’m basically a good human being.  And on February 16, 2012, I will be donating a kidney to my uncle. I am writing this for two reasons:  1) something for my children to read one day and understand why, and 2) maybe it will help others in making the decision to either help a family member or a complete stranger.

A little background…

My uncle Larry, age 55, is my mom’s baby brother.  He started having health problems and was finally diagnosed with Wegener’s granulomatosis (WG), a rare disease that only attacks 1 in 30,000 people.  Very difficult to diagnose and unfortunately, by the time he was diagnosed, treated and in remission, his kidneys were no longer functioning.  He has been on dialysis for 7.5 years, way longer than necessary.  He cannot live indefinitely like this and to be truthful, who would want to?  Not only do other health issues arise, but he is tied to a machine for 4 hours a day, 6 days a week.  He has one of the strongest work ethics of anyone I know and that is greatly impacted in addition to his pride. Larry and his wife, Elizabeth, were there for me growing up and are wonderful to our kids.  Elizabeth is a major part of my doing this. She is one of the sweetest people and is suffering from crippling arthritis, dealing with more pain on a daily basis than you or I will ever know in a lifetime.  She is going to need him in the coming years.

Several family members have tried to be donors but they were ruled out for various health reasons.  About 6 months ago, Larry reached out on Facebook in hopes a complete stranger would help him.  A complete stranger. This got me thinking.

While on one of my runs, I started tossing around the idea of being a donor in my head.  Started to feel good.  Here I am: I live a very healthy and active lifestyle, am relatively young, and done having children.  We are family and I would probably be a better match than a stranger.  I have a perfectly healthy extra kidney and he needs one.  Before even telling my husband I was considering this, I started doing some research, reading blogs and thinking, thinking, thinking about it. Here are some surprising things I learned:

• We are blessed with way more kidney function we will ever need.  We can be down to one kidney, operating only at 5% functioning and still have a normal life.  With one kidney, you can still be 100% functioning.
• When one kidney is removed, the other kidney increases in size and after a year is almost twice the size.  Basically, I will have a “Super Kidney” (cue the Superman theme song).
• Now the kidney is removed by laprascope, reducing recovery time drastically, approximately two weeks if all goes well.
• I can still live my exact same healthy lifestyle as before: running half marathons, doing triathlons, etc.  My only limitations will be: I can’t go on a high protein diet or take ibuprofen.  (Darn, there goes my plans for the Atkins Diet. Though, truthfully, I will miss the ibuprofen.)

After thinking and researching for about a month, I felt pretty good about my decision.  After discussing it a length with my husband and family, I proceeded with the matching test.  This involved going to my regular doctor, getting blood drawn and sending it to the transplant center.  We can back not only as a match but a really good one. After that first screening, I went in for a full day of testing.  This was to rule out any health problems I may have that could be impacted with just one kidney.  This involved collecting my urine for 24 hours in a milk jug (that was a lot of fun), more blood tests, C Scan, chest X-rays, and more.  I also had to meet with a social worker, someone not associated with the Transplant Center, to determine if I was psychologically ready to donate a kidney.  She wanted to make sure I wasn’t being pressured to do this and understand my reasoning.  One question she asked sticks out in my mind:  ”How will you feel if his body rejects your kidney?” Really?  Was she asking if I would be resentful or mad at him if that happens? Of course not.  I’ll be disappointed of course, but not for me.  I’ll feel bad for him and think it was worth a shot.

This journey started in September and after a roller coaster of testing and waiting, more testing and waiting, I was approved as a donor in December!

My husband is supportive but is still scared and worried, we both are.  I stress the “we” part of that last sentence as this affects not just me but my whole family.  However, the hospital where it will be done is one of the top kidney transplant programs in the nation, has a 98% success rate for non-rejections and ZERO donor deaths. This will also have a ripple effect:  by giving him a kidney, it will take him off the national transplant list, moving someone else that much closer to a new kidney.

To see both Larry and Elizabeth so happy, excited and most of all, hopeful, warms my heart.  Giving is just as exciting as receiving.   

So now it is two weeks until surgery day.  As it gets closer, I’ll write more about my before and after experience donating a kidney.

Until then, take care! -Jeni Lind