My experience has been very positive. The surgery itself was as expected. Laparoscopic, took about 5 hours. I had quite a bit of pain upon waking up but once I had some heavy duty pain meds on board, I was fine. I went home the following day. Within a few days I was able to control the pain with only Tylenol and I was driving within a week. One complication that is not directly related to the surgery, I developed shingles about two weeks post-op. They were definitely more uncomfortable than recovering from the surgery! I'm now coming up on 4 weeks and pretty much feel back to normal. I find that my energy level isn't quite what it was, but it's getting better every day.

I hear from my recipient's wife every couple of days with progress reports and he is doing fabulous! I have zero regrets about being a living donor and will continue to tell everyone I can about my amazing experience!

Pair #2 of my 7-way chain is scheduled for surgery on March 3 at Mayo Jax!!!