![]() ![]() ![]() Thank you, Tom, and a big thank you to others who have given, tried to give or are thinking of giving.Male and female patients ≥ 18 years of age with an eGFR level and biopsy-confirmed IgA nephropathy as follows:įor patients eGFR* ≥ 45ml/min/1.73m2, a qualifying biopsy performed within the last 5 years is required.įor patients with eGFR* 30 to 140 mmHg or DBP >90 mmHg at the randomization visit However, you will have given the precious gift of life. As a donor, you will not receive much recognition. One, a letter from me expressing my gratitude.ĭonors are unsung heroes. Pre- and post-transplant, I received many cards, letters, phone calls and well wishes from a host of friends and acquaintances. More gas in the tank allows me to do the things I love. Since the transplant, my hemoglobin levels have returned to normal. Life at Idledays is not idle: two wood stoves, yard work and painting. I am a physically active guy – hiking, biking, skiing, working out at the gym and serving as the caretaker for a 230-year-old house, Idledays. Anemia means less hemoglobin, thinner blood and a reduced chance for clotting. When blood is taken out of the body to filter, it has a tendency to clot. This is the usual case due to the difficulty in matching donors with recipients.ĭialysis patients are kept anemic. You end up in a pool where your donor donates to a stranger and you receive a kidney from another stranger. The National Kidney Registry matches donors and recipients. The take-home message is to explain to loved ones what the risks are.ĭonor No. If you don’t understand something, you are against it. 1 in transplants is to protect the donor.ĭonor number three was again an exact match. She was in no danger, but they would not harvest a kidney from her. Her creatine, a measure of renal function, was slightly elevated. If two of the 12 are a mismatch, the kidney will be rejected. One gets three antigens from their mother and three from their dad. Then there is the issue of tissue typing. She was a blood type O, a universal donor. My second offer was from the wife of a good friend. Kidneys are now harvested from 75 year olds, but these are very, very healthy individuals. My personal bout with prostate cancer delayed the procedure and he fell outside the age limitations for donation. My journey in finding a donor may be informative. Kidneys are harvested from only the healthiest of donors and these people will outlive their peer groups. The donor will undergo major surgery and have a few weeks of downtime while healing.Īt Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, they only accept 10% of patients who are willing to donate. Poor outcomes occur in about 1% of patients. Physicians have had 70-plus years of experience with this procedure. The first kidney transplant was done in 1955. Most dialysis patients die waiting for a kidney. Sooner or later, you are going down the drain. It does nothing to correct the many functions of the kidney. My donor was a friend I would like to call “Tom.” My issue was an IGA nephropathy, an autoimmune disease that has been killing my kidneys for over 30 years.įor the past two years, I have been on dialysis. I would like to tell my story to encourage others to give the gift of life. Returning home, I saw an article in the April 10 Monitor on organ donation. I was at Massachusetts General Hospital on April 9 getting a kidney transplant.
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