@onecentwalsh Ooow this is exactly what I needed to read as a hopeful future donor. I too must work around the school year calendar & am concerned with the 3 month summer break schedule when I'm available to achieve the "Pay it Forward" chain of life giving kidney transplants. At 54 I'm running out of time to donate since the age limit is 60 when considering it will be an entire year before I'm in a position to try again. That is far too long knowing that every day on average 22 people die from lack of a donor kidney. This is reassuring, thanks for sharing.

@onecentwalsh Wow As a living donor I want to meet the recipient. Is there a reason you do not know who is the new owner of your kidney? Was this by choice or circumstance?

@beckyjohnson I was an anonymous donor by choice. I did sign a form giving my email address to the recipient. If they sign it as well, then we can know each other. Maybe months from now, I might get to know my recipient and the chain of people that my donation started, but for now I'm happy knowing that it made it from Mn to FL and into the recipient!

@mauraacro it is amazing! Costco was hard yesterday...my sister was in town helping a few days with things like vacuuming and errand running. I wanted to put everything in the cart, but she scolded me and did it for me.
Recovery is just a short blip in life, so I'm being thankful in those moments where i can't do it yet!

@mauraacro At this point I must admit I could not have forseen waiting to hear rather I've been accepted as a donor would be hard but it is, ugh the waiting.

@onecentwalsh Oh my gosh aka OMG that is quite a trip for a living organ to take all by itself. The sociologist in me wants to know how it was kept alive or was it, how long did it take to get from your body to your recipients body & what are the statistics for your kidneys particular type of journey verses 2 people side by side?
The joy of giving is like true love in that it is priceless, inexplicably profound & completely confounds logical explanation.

@beckyjohnson Now you have me thinking of my timeline. And yes, waiting is so hard, there is so much waiting.
Mine was a directed donation. The 1st labs sent to me be done by my dr. were (I think) to see if I was a match. I wasn't but there were no antibodies that would cause her to reject the kidney so I moved on to the evaluation. If you don't have a specific person, maybe you skip this step?
None of the billion tests during the evaluation had to do with matching or the recipient, they all had to do with making sure donation wouldn't harm me physically, mentally or financially.
Although I didn't know the donor or anyone related to her, I knew her name and that she had been on dialysis for almost 5 years and her health was failing rapidly at that point. She had 2 previous matches that backed out. Because of her age (61) and the length of time she was on dialysis, her "number" wasn't going to come up.
After my evaluation, I got to know her a bit through email but I didn't want to know too much for fear that I would put myself in the position as a judge. I had complete faith in Mayo that if she were someone who didn't take receiving a transplant seriously, they would not do the surgery but I worried that if I found out she was a jerk or if we had opposing beliefs, I wouldn't feel as positive about my donation. It wasn't a great thing to find out about myself. I would have gone through with the donation but not in the spirit that it was intended.
I guess what I'm saying is, I completely understand you wanting to meet the recipient and there are numerous ways to find someone specific who needs an organ but it could make things harder on you.

@mauraacro Hmm there is plenty of food for thought in your post. To be honest I did have a slightly more than fleeting thought "What if I don't like the person?" before I was reminded I can find the good in anybody. You brought a really good point up - Mayo knows who is taking their transplant serious enough for surgery. I also liked your view about removing biased judgement from the equation. Which we already know from my openly honest post that I believe it is a waste of resources to give a perfectly good kidney to someone who lives a harmful - dangerous lifestyle detrimental to their quality of life. I enjoyed reading your thought provoking post. Thank you

@onecentwalsh After reading posts today I came to the conclusion there is room for argument & persuasion over the topic to know or not know the recipient. As for me I'm swaying to the know side. However I have now learned enough from this group conversation that I will be filled with joy that I was part of a team that made a significant difference in multiple lives & a somewhat smaller difference as a minor medical player

@mauraacro Is this an open offer? Are you the donor or recipient? For some I think you are a recipient but I think it is easier to just ask than figure where that notion came from.