I give blood and I am on the bone marrow donor list.

I have a friend who needs a kidney and I would be willing to donate one to help him, but I am the wrong blood type.

I used to give my blood and platelets but cannot any more.

And I was on the bone marrow transplant list till I got too old.

I do have the sticker on my driver's license that any organs or tissues that are needed can be taken upon my death.

I donate blood regularly. Have for years.

I'm not mutulating myself for a stranger. I might consider it for a close family member but even that is iffy. I'd do it for my kids but that's about it.

I would consider it an honor.

Although I might make an exception for close family. My last two surgeries resulted in major complications, so I wouldn't risk it.

gave her a kidney. It was very brave since their mother was on dialysis for 13 years before she died and their two other siblings also have kidney disease.

I'd do it for a loved one although I doubt doctors would let me at this age

But before that age I began the testing process for an acquaintance (a different donor was selected before they got to me).

Donating a liver portion is a significant event. Normally the process is safe, but it requires about 2 months off work, and around a year to feel back to normal, and the process is worse for the donor than the recipient. The recipient goes from having a non-functional liver to having 2/3 of a fully functional liver. The donor, on the other hand, drops from having 100% of a fully functional liver to having 33% of one (assuming an adult recipient of similar size). The body regenerates the liver pretty quickly - but it takes energy (and there is an adjustment process while the remaining 1/3 of the liver gets used to handling the entire load). And, they are just beginning to use a laparoscopic process to remove the liver segment, so most still involve a "mercedes" scar from around the bottom of your breastbone to the top of your hips (and the muscle interruption which results from that kind of incision).

That is not to discourage DU members from explorating of liver donation. In the past year i have had a half dozen friends and acquaintances die while waiting for a new liver (or die because a new liver was found, but not soon enough). Living donors are desperately needed because there are not enough cadaver donors to fill the need.

But going into it with a misunderstanding about how easy or safe it is doesn't do anyone any good. In terms of impact on the donor if a laparoscopic procedure is available for a kidney donor, the liver donation process is harder on the donor than the kidney donation process.

nephew is in his early 20's and recovered quite quickly.
it was my understanding that they only took 1/3 of his liver.

For a child they take a portion of the left lobe - they take most of the left lobe for a smaller adult. For an equivalent size adult, they take the right lobe. The left lobe is about 1/3 of the liver, the right lobe is about 2/3.

When I was in the early testing stages, I had a long conversation with a friend of mine who had donated a portion of his liver to a friend of his, who had the same disease my daughter has. I knew I would age out before my daughter needed a liver (she is still going with her factory issue parts) - so I started the donor evaluation process with an acquaintance whose parents were already too old. According to my friend, even though he was back to work in 8-12 weeks, it was a year before he felt normal again. At the time he was 29 or 30.

ETA: If the friend is the silver haired gentleman in the FB pictures it would almost certainly require the right lobe (~2/3 of the liver).

donor in his 20's.
i dont know how long ago that was, but things are changing fast.

it would have been approximately 2/3 of the liver. Things haven't changed much in the last 10 years. I don't think they changed much from the first live donor transplant about 25 years ago - but my personal familiarity only extends back a decade. The process my friend went through was nearly identical to what was described to me.

When they perfect the laparoscopic removal, that will be a significant shift for living donors - those just started within the last couple of years on an experimental basis. (And the even bigger change will come in around 5 years when they perfect the grow-your-own liver process - no more anti-rejection drugs! Currently they have created a functional liver around the size of a walnut.)

but no, he is a skinny guy, and his dad is only a little wider.

and when the surgery was.

Figure 4 here shows how they generally divide the liver up - with segments 5-8 going to the recipient. Page 504, near the bottom puts the donated right lobe (segments 5-8) at around 60% for most people. It does discuss earlier (less successful) adult operations where they used a smaller portion. That would have been slightly less stressful on the donor, but didn't work so well for more of the recipients.

at northwestern hospital, one of the top in the country.
i'll let you know.

almost certainly the right lobe (~60%).

I have acquaintances being treated there - likely some who have been transplanted there. But I'm not specifically familiar with their protocol.

did take 70% of donors liver.
nephew was back at work in 3 weeks, tho he sorta regretted it.
both had 85% regrowth in 8 weeks.

I would have donated it, but -- to paraphrase Rodney Dangerfield -- I'm giving my body to science fiction.

Ironically, despite the safety, it looks like my wife's one remaining kidney might be failing. They check one particular function every three months, and it's been decreasing rapidly. The next test should reveal whether or not she's hit official "early kidney failure" yet. Hopefully the healthy eating and frequent exercise are helping.

She says she has no regrets and would still donate the kidney.

you never know what your future holds.

that we found out my daughter was born with just one kidney

She had been involved in a pretty serious car crash in 1995


When they did a scan or whatever they do in the ER to make sure there are no internal injuries, that's how they discovered it.

Well, not that the second kidney is completely missing...it's there but only about the size of a peanut (or smaller) and non-functional.

I worry about her all the time, although she just had some tests done recently and the full sized kidney is still operating well.

While complications are "unlikely", they do happen and can be lethal. I wouldn't put my children at risk of losing a parent in order to donate to a stranger. I'd certainly put my life at risk to help one of my children. Blood and marrow donations are one thing, but donations that can kill me are off the table.

FWIW, a sister of one of my sisters friends offered to donate a kidney to another sister a number of years ago (to be clear, there were three sisters in the family...my own sister is friends with one of them, and a second sister offered the kidney to a third sister). She was assured that it was safe, but died on the operating table. She had three kids under 10 at the time . That's sad enough, but it's made even worse by the fact that her kids (now in their 20's) still refuse to talk to the aunt today, and flat out blame her for killing their mother (and bluntly have told her so to her face). The recipient herself has a ton of mental issues because of it all.

My perspective may change a bit when my kids grow up and move out, but for the time being I won't willingly put my family at risk for that sort of thing.

that is a pretty sad story. ffs, blame the docs, or, correctly, blame fate.

it is tempting to me because my kids are grown, and i dont really have a lot to look forward to in my life.
too old to donate, tho, prolly.

I have, however, indicated I'm an organ donor on my drivers license.

These are serious surgeries for the donors. A friend of mine was a good match for her adult son, but while he made an almost miraculous recovery, she nearly died because her bowel was nicked during the small-incision procedure. A nurse who was making a routine post-op check on my friend arrived just as all her vital signs crashed. She ended up with an extensive stay in the hospital and multiple surgeries. The hospital said they'd never had such an outcome before.

So I would proceed with eyes wide open.

not a match for my friend just based on blood type.
shit does go wrong. it would be scary.
but it has me thinking about bone marrow or something.

But that's on the theory that I won't need any of my bits once I've breathed my last.

I donated my left kidney to my uncle in 1991.

And we are both still here.

glad it turned out so well for both of you.

at my age, i am ready for whatever the reaper has in mind, i think.
but i could imagine asking for a loved one, and refusing to let them go.

...later, they develop cancer in their one and only kidney.
Rather silly maybe but that's how my mind thinks..

I am an organ donor (according to my drivers license). If something happened to me then I would donate my organs.

also aware that i dont want to be hanging by an electrical cord until is all rots, either.

I was much younger at the time and offered my kidney without ever being asked. Unfortunately I wasn't a good enough match. My friend died a few months later.

I say, as long as the donation doesn't have life threatening risks for the donor, it's a wonderful thing to do for someone. You're giving the gift of life and nothing else matches that.

septicemia to other ill effects.

Healthy if I am needed. I am also listed as an organ donor, we found from the group a 96 year young had donated his kidneys so we all signed up. There are eyes and skin if the donor is deceased in the field, what a blessing to donate to help the living.

who dies in 73, used to tell us that if his corneas or anything else could help someone when he died that we should do it. so, he was saying this back in the 60's. i guess that might be why it always seemed like the right thing to do for me.
unfortunately, i dont think anyone remembered those instructions when he passed, tho he was probably not a good donor.

fuck it,if I can help someone without killing me,cut me open.

fat, but nobody wants it.


Seriously, though...I really don't know if I'd donate an organ or not while still alive, although I do have a donor sticker on my license.

If they can find anything useful, they're welcome to it

I am a chicken.

I could help keep someone around for their family I would definitely do it.

(Me+Wife+Mom)/(Rest of World)

i have CFS/ME and because they don't know how it's transmitted i'm not supposed to give blood or be an organ donor.

I can't afford to be recuperating that much for that long, and at my age (nearly 57) I doubt I'd be a good candidate anyway.

That said, for family I'd give anything and everything, especially for my sons.

I've been an organ donator since I saw an article in an old Reader's Digest, and tore out the card included. I was 17, but I waited to sign it until I was 18. My two best friends witnessed it during study hall. I've been on the bone marrow list for about eight or nine years now. I don't donate blood because I pass out when getting blood samples done, but my mother donated many, many pints, and my youngest son has, too, so I figure they made up for me.

Also, I have some condition that seems like fibromyalgia, so I'm not even sure I could donate anything anymore.

I have an auto immune disease eating away at my spine. . . killing my nerves, freezing me ramrod straight etc. etc.

A simple biopsy my body responds to as an 'injury' which triggers a massive flare. The fewer the flares, the less freezing, the slower my rib cage closes around my lungs.

On the one hand - I know how I'm probably going to die.

On the other hand - I'd like to delay that for as long as I can.

So I couldn't do it - I have people that depend on me.

Most likely I would. Family and friends who I can not imagine not being in my life, I would pretty much do almost anything for them.