2000 AD Online Forum

...donated a kidney?

I have offered for a good friend, knowing that several other friends had offered before me, though with no matches in my friend's family (she's an 'O' in a family of 'A's) it looks now like the needle is pointing my way...damn!

It seems from everything I read that it does no harm to the donor's health or longevity and even that donors tend to live longer because they get a thorough free health check beforehand, and the risk of death is very minute at about 3 in 10,000. Yet it seems so odd that we have two kidneys when we function perfectly well with one.

Of course I will have the full consultations and I've been given a DVD on the subject to watch, just wondered if anyone here had the personal experience.

ADE

Very good of you Ade...well done.

Fair play to you Ade. As gestures of friendship go they don't come greater than that.

I take it you haven't seen the Simpsons episode where Homer decides(kinda) to donate a kidney to Grampa?
;0

Marge:You've shortened your life significantly so someone else can have a slight extension of theirs!

I'm sure your doctors know the risks!

Well done that man!

Link: plot synopsis

If your mate turns out not to need it maybe you could try making the ultimate fry-up instead?

My grandad lived with one kidney for 88 years (lost it at 8, died at 96).

That's great to hear

the singer in my band is also on a waiting list for a transplant-it's no fun

Wow- I don't like any of my friends enough to give them a kidney!  Couldn't you just make her a nice cup of tea instead?

If you fall out later on, can you ask for it back?

What if they've already eaten it?

Hi, this thread is back as I'm going in on Monday to have the kidney taken out and put into my friend Jo.

I thought it would be worth bringing up since it might spur anyone on to get round to putting themselves on the Organ Donor Register (for donating organs after death). I think now you can't just carry a donor card, you have to register. That way there will be more organs going round and saps like me won't have to donate while living (though live donations work better). There is a drastic shortage and as people die we all pay a huge amount of money to keep kidney patients on dialysis. If you have any friends or family with kidney faliure you might want to consider taking a look to see if your blood group is compatible for a live donation and consider how one might feel seeing them get iller and iller - live donation is now a very routine operation conducted with keyhole surgery and results in no statistical shortening of life (one kidney takes on 80% of the full function - you have to be down to 5% or so before you get ill).

I should be out on Friday so I'll post here to tell you how it went.

ADE

Link: Register

Hat's off to you, Bamforth- you're a bigger man than I'll ever be.

Break a leg, Adrian.  You're some man for one man, as we say in these parts.  

Good for you, and good luck!

What a Gent! Hats off to you and I hope you and your friend both have a speedy recovery after the procedure. You really will be able to say that you do a lot of work for charity but you don't like to talk about it as we wince home from the op. Good luck once again.

Wow. I don't even like sharing my crisps...
Good luck that man!

  Wow.You dont sound the least bit bothered by whats ahead.

  I watched a very interesting docu on transplants once.The subject was all about how transplant patients seem to adopt personality traits or talents along with the transplanted organ.This seems to affect heart transplant patients the most as apparently the heart as an organ seems to have an intelligence of its own as the heart has a system of neurons contained within it.There have been instances of the transplant patient playing guitar ,writing poetry or various other things where previously they had not done so.These talents where verified by contacting the dead doners relatives who said "thats just what Jim used to do" etc.


 Wether or not this happens with kidneys ,liver etc i dont honestly know but i found the whole thing very interesting.


 I dont even know what blood type i am at all.

hope it all went well

Top man.  Hope all's well.

As for why we've got two kidneys when one apparently suffices, I vaguely recall reading that this sort or thing can be modelled with an algorithm that balances the resources required to grow more than one, any advantages of having more than one, the likelihood of one getting damaged and the trouble you'd be in if yours did get seriously damaged.

That said, a quick search of the ol' intarwebs turns up nothing of the sort, so I may just be regurgitating something heard in the pub.

Well kidney diseases are usually detectable at a young age but even those that might develop later tend to affect both the kidneys simultaneously so it's isn't much help to have a spare. If you end up witn none you can still live on dialysis and hold out for a transplant like any kidney patient (there's a man running an marathon at the Tansplant Oympics this year with no kidneys after he had cancer in them. As you can imagine, he was delighted to get rid of them).

What happens is the 1 kidney gets bigger and takes on the extra function required. As I've mentioned though, since you have a thorough health check including all kinds of scans, you're more likely to have any other illnesses detected, increasing your longevity.

So Adrian..did you survive the op?

You're a braver man than I am, Ade. Hope it works out fine for you both.

Good luck.  
Good Man.

""

Er, he's not having it until Monday, Johnny!

Hope it's all plain sailing, Ade.
You're clearly a better friend to Jo than I'll ever be to any of my mates!

Where'd me bleedin' quote go?

Best of luck Adrian,

What a friend you are to that person.

it'll all be good. The karma will come right back atcha!

jB

Good luck Ade!

It makes me happy to know there are people like you around Adrian.

It must take a great amount of courage, belief and selflessness to do such an amazing thing for another human with no gain for yourself except their and their families thanks.

I salute you Adrian.

Human beings can be such wonderful things!

Good luck.

Good Luck Ade,
You are a top man.

The very best of luck with this Ade, I hope (and am sure) all will go well.

Of course it will mean that your mate Jo can never refuse you anything ever again.

'Jo, could you go pick up my 2000ad from the newsagents'

'It's a bit of a walk Ade, I'll get it when I'm in town later'

'Kidney!'

'Err, OK then, anything else I can get for you??'

Good luck (again), keep us posted when you get back.

will be sending pychic good-vibes, you're a true hero

The things a bloke will do to get a shag...

Good luck to you Ade, hope to see you back on the board soon.
All the best
Filip
 

Good luck, I hope nothing goes awry.

Top man! Hope it's a success for you and your friend and am sure it will be!

M@

Good luck with your worthy endeveaour. If you need chering up look out for Season 5 of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'. The arc of the season concerns Larry's rash promise to donate a kidney to Richard Lewis and his weasely efforts to get out of it. The scene where he is busted by a doctor attempting to harvest another donor is a classic.

Like Lazarus I'm back. Both of us are doing well and the kidney's working fine, surprisingly the pain was never too bad and I didn't have to keep pressing the 'more morphine' button, probably helped by it being keyhole surgery, though I'm currently walking not unlike my hero mr Groucho Marx. Took a while to get food moving again but the nausea was probably the worst thing for me along with the alarmingly bright lights in the hospital ward forcing me to make a dash on Friday. It was good to see Jo being given a new list of all the foods she can now enjoy which were previously restricted (mostly healthy stuff) and know she doesn't have to dialise for hours every day - one of the people on the ward was in because their dialysis tube in their arm had caused an agonising infection: he had a hand like a gorilla's. Amazing though that it's all done and dusted in the space of a week, though it hasn't dispelled my fear of general anaesthetic which I still find as freaky a concept afterwards, though most people I've spoken to (and everyone except me seems to have had some kind of operation before) say they found it pleasant or even liked it.  
 
Anyway, we should have some non-gruesome photos from before the op, I'll post one soon.

Ade

WELL DONE THAT MAN!!!

Good to have you back Ade.

Glad things worked out well.

J.

Well done that man.

It makes you an angel. It doesn't make you a saint.


If you er know what I mean. Probabley not but good to hear you are okay.

Of course we all want to see the scar... and this Jo person who now has a bit of you inside her (but not in a good way!!).

Once again, well done.

Late to this thread - glad it all went so well.

So, on the topic of recipients picking up traits - have you asked Jo to draw anything yet? (Thought it would be pretty strange for any artistic ability to be residing in your kidneys)

though, even

Gah! Late to this thread too! Well done Mr B, you are a true hero!

Well Done that man :)

I do hope you use it against her forever now though ;)

good stuff. glad to hear you're both doing well

Top man...I hope I have a friend like you one day...

my reactions are much like everyone else's.  Well done! My hat is off to you.

glad you're both well,

Welcome back and bloody well done!

Well, I wouldn't have done it, so your a better man than me.  But that's damning with feint praise.

Good for you Ade, glad you're okay.

Congrats, chief - hell of a thing to do, glad to hear both of you are doing well.  

Incredibly well done and glad it went well.

Well done , good on ya

Please tell me that you at least got a shag out of it, Bamforth!

In all seriousness-  as somebody who's very rarely impressed, I think that's a pretty amazing thing to do for somebody else.

Impressed of Leicestershire.

No though I got a very touching song out of it:

Link: Wait Up Ade

Well done, Ade! I'm proud to know you!

Aw fun.

Neat song. Hope the both of you are doing well.

Now I get it- you're hoping to trade off this when they get famous, right?

:D