My Living Organ Donor Story
1ThoughtKnown
Posts: 6,155
Three days ago I went under the knife to donate 68% of my liver to my Brother-In-Law. He had a pre-existing genetic liver disease which results in the development of cancer in approximately 10% of afflicted patients. Luckily, they were screening him regularly and caught the cancer early, therefore making him eligible for a living donor. He would have needed one eventually but the cancer expedited the process.
i am currently recovering in the Toronto General Hospital and I am doing great. More importantly, my Brother-In-Law is also doing great and has accepted the liver. A full recovery for both of us is expected. I am in the process of being moved from the post-op step down unit to a hospital room for the next 3 nights.
I am posting this because the PJ Faithful are a charitable bunch and I want to spread the word on the living donor liver and kidney programs around the world.
This hospital in Toronto is a world leader however excellent programs are available from UPMC in Pittsburgh and in South Korea for instance.
Speaking for myself, being a living donor and saving someone’s life is the greatest thing I have ever done. There are people who donate organs to people they DON’T KNOW. Those are the real heroes. Once again, this is not intended for me to get unnecessary adulation, I just want more folks to be aware of the programs and perhaps we can save lives. You don’t have to be deceased to provide a liver or a kidney and I can tell you first-hand, the small amount of discomfort is worth saving another’s life!
Cheers everyone
i am currently recovering in the Toronto General Hospital and I am doing great. More importantly, my Brother-In-Law is also doing great and has accepted the liver. A full recovery for both of us is expected. I am in the process of being moved from the post-op step down unit to a hospital room for the next 3 nights.
I am posting this because the PJ Faithful are a charitable bunch and I want to spread the word on the living donor liver and kidney programs around the world.
This hospital in Toronto is a world leader however excellent programs are available from UPMC in Pittsburgh and in South Korea for instance.
Speaking for myself, being a living donor and saving someone’s life is the greatest thing I have ever done. There are people who donate organs to people they DON’T KNOW. Those are the real heroes. Once again, this is not intended for me to get unnecessary adulation, I just want more folks to be aware of the programs and perhaps we can save lives. You don’t have to be deceased to provide a liver or a kidney and I can tell you first-hand, the small amount of discomfort is worth saving another’s life!
Cheers everyone
Post edited by 1ThoughtKnown on
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Comments
Thank you for dropping knowledge about living donations as well. I regularly donate blood, but I’ll look into other possibilities as well.
My brother-in-law has had three kidney transplants, with one donated by someone he works with. Just amazing to me.
As to the liver growing back, it should be clarified that some regeneration can occur only with a transplant. Having cirrhosis myself, my docs have told me this time and again. I'm thankful I'm not at the point again where a transplant was a real possibility.
I hope you both continue to heal well, and that your BIL's health worries are mostly behind him.
I've always been a donor, but these days I doubt much, if anything, in this body of mine would be much use
And you are correct, the liver will only regenerate in the transplant process and only once. They took the entire B side of my liver and left
fhe A side. The live will regenerate to be one A side and look differently, however function the same.’
astoria 06
albany 06
hartford 06
reading 06
barcelona 06
paris 06
wembley 07
dusseldorf 07
nijmegen 07
this song is meant to be called i got shit,itshould be called i got shit tickets-hartford 06 -
Im right there with you, although I took great strides in taking care of myself the past
18 months. My naturopath has been a great help in that aspect.
Sign your organ donor card (in Alberta it is on our health care card)
The kindness of the folks in the Jamily does not surprise me. Both the recipient (BiL) and I will be more charitable individuals going forward. Love is here to be spread... and although I can’t donate my liver all the time I can definitely do more. I will do more.
It’s been a week and both of us are released from the hospital and recovering in Toronto. It really is amazing how quickly we are both recovering. Energy levels are low and my sleep patterns are screwy but every day it gets a little better. 5 weeks and I’ll be back to work (I don’t have a physical job that would require 3 months off).
Its just weird imagining this liver growing inside of me. It will be 94-96% of its original size in 6 weeks from date of surgery.
They em told me today that their teenage children have a new hero.... and they have both reached out to me...all very humbling. It is an amazing experience to make real change in people’s lives.
I really hope it gives hope to any folks who have or have people close to them in need of a transplant.
I would do it again.... except I can only do this once haha
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5341339
Comfortably Numb. Eddie’s voice was the one in my head.... I was just so doped up it made
me chuckle.
pretty crazy but we were about 10-12 rows back on Stone’s side as well! Had a little problem with a Justin Bieber wannabe but other than that it was a lot of fun. Great show and Krakow is beautiful. Loved the salt mine and the Auschwitz/Birkenau excursion... well that changed me forever.
Krakow was a gorgeous city (particularly the square), the show was great, and GA was packed. I got slammed into quite a bit and most of my group bailed for the back but I stayed in, maybe roughly 15 rows back, Stone's side. We were within spitting distance.
And I hear you on Auschwitz.
Nothing can prepare you for Auschwitz /Birkenau. I’ve seen many documentaries, visited the Holocaust Museum in DC 3 times, was at Dachau 6 months prior... the heaviness I felt, it hung in the air, still stunned by it more than a year later.