Hi @ihatediabetes –Thank you for being tested as a living kidney donor. I’m sorry to hear you weren’t an eligible candidate due to your diabetes. You’ve found a wonderful alternative for giving back through the John E. Herman house. Your giving spirit is admirable!

If your passion for organ donation persists, we would encourage you to sign-up as a deceased organ donor. Doctors determine what is viable for organ donation upon time of death. While it might not be a kidney, you could donate other organs, tissue or eyes, and still make amazing (in some cases LIFESAVING!) impact on others. Here’s the link to register: http://www.registerme.org.

<br><br><br><br><br>The medical world is always making strides in organ transplantation. What <br>may not be deemed an acceptable organ ; might be in the future. For <br>example:  they presently are able to 'clean' dirty lungs, run antibiotics <br>through them, and keep the donor lung alive longer while they <br>work on it. Not sure, but I don't think diabetes would inhibit the use of your <br>skin, burn victims could benefit from that.<br> <br><br>

@ihatediabetes That is so true and so unfortunate. Teresa

Hi everybody. I am OK even though I got gonged when filling out kidney living donor form on line. I guess it's stupid to think you can donate a kidney if you got type 2 diabetes on medical record. I didn't know about diabetes and kidneys. But I did get to send donation check to Mayo Clinic for John E Herman House. I also got to donate blood today at Hilton building at Mayo Clinic. I had two appointments today so I went to donate blood. They don't seem to mind if you have diabetes to donate blood. So I am a living donor after all because I donated something that gets turned into red blood, plasma, and platelets and I am still alive. I also got a free shirt that says mayo clinic blood donor program. I showed my shirt to mammogram tech and she's going to tell her friends to donate blood for the new shirt. It's black polyester material that's made of wicking material. She said Mayo blood donation center has got great shirts and I got one from FIRST donation. When I get to gallon level or four donations then I can get a sweatshirt. So its OK. I'll keep my kidney just in case and I will be living donor for blood. Maybe platelets too but that takes longer and I don't think you get better prizes for platelets. Haha.

Yes, @windwalker The advances in the medical world are amazing! Rosemary

Kristen, thank you for sharing this helpful information about organ donation.
Rosemary

@ihatediabetes, I would like to thank you for opening the conversation about organ donation. As I have said before, your attitude amazes me! As an 8 year liver/kidney recipient, I am honored to know you (virtually).

I know that you will wear that new t-shirt with the pride that it deserves.
Rosemary

@ihatediabetes When I was single I worked for Blue Cross in Boston and they really encouraged giving blood so I did that every three months. I have gone once or twice since but now I am thinking that maybe I should resume that if I am not too old to be a donor.
JK

I definitely got something out of blood donation from an emotional perspective. There's no upper age limit. I think there's just the criteria like HIV, living in England, etc. With lots of things we do, we don't know if its right or wrong, good or bad. So many things are just grey - not right or wrong. But with blood donation its all good. There's nothing wrong or grey about it. We don't get paid. (Oh but we can get a cool shirt and a big cookie.) Donating blood or organs is just because you want to help somebody. So I think its meaningful. I also believe it pleases God just to try to help.

Windwalker, I had gestational diabetes too with my second child. I have learned that exercise and diet are really important to reversing diabetes trend. When you exercise your muscles take the glucose directly out of bloodstream to fuel the exercise. Good to do resistance training too. I stopped drinking orange juice. I definitely think its good to never get diabetes in the first place. I know that if insurance law changes and if I'm back in the individual market that I will get rejected for pre-existing condition of diabetes. They never forget once in medical record. Yup.