Tag Archive | health

Life update ❤️

Recently, a platelet donation gone wrong landed me in a hospital emergency. There was a complication that usually isn’t dangerous, but I had a worse reaction than usual. So to be safe, I was sent to an ER.

Believe it or not, as bad as this looks, this is not the worst of it. It looks way worse now. It was agony when it first happened. Now it still hurts a lot but not like when it first happened. The pain was astounding.

The needle slipped out of my arm and pierced my vein, and my arm filled with fluids that is irritating my nerves, and building up around my body tissue. It’s called vein infiltration. They were concerned about a possible blod clot or nerve damage. But thankfully, it’s just irritated.

Me in a hospital radiology getting my scans after being admitted lol

🤣😂

Yes, these are my real boobs. Lol They’re big (disproportionately large, compared to the rest of my body lol A fitness instructor told me that years ago), but I don’t usually take pictures at this angle to show off how big. It looks like I stuffed my bra. But these D cups don’t need stuffing lol

This is a picture of me just after putting my shirt back on after some scans.

Another platelet donor almost passed out, and the nurses had to lay him down on the floor next to me at our platelet donation appointment.

The things we do for (universal) love. Lol

The Things We Do For Love – 10cc

The doctors and nurses were all very kind and kept thanking me for being a platelet donor. The one doctor also happens to be a platelet donor! We are rare, only less than 1%! So it was a coincidence. He was going out of his way to donate platelets at a place that isn’t close. He had no idea about the place right up the street where I donate. It’s easier for him to go there, so now he’s switching! I’m glad we met.

In the U.S, there is an extreme blood shortage. There always is, but sometimes it reaches crisis level, like now.

We need more donors! Yes, I still recommend it, even after this. Lol

The doctors and nurses all took my pain seriously. It’s common for healthcare workers to be dismissive of a patient’s pain, especially if the patient is a woman. So I appreciated their care.

I will go back and donate platelets again when I’m all healed.

I got to attend an amazing event on Friday night! And they gave us free movie theatre popcorn and a drink! I wanted popcorn & soda, but we know how expensive movie theatre food is! Lol So I wasn’t buying anything, then someone told me we all get a free popcorn and fountain drink! I was thrilled like a little girl lol

I watched a documentary on what is considered by researchers to be “extreme altruism.”

The movie was a special viewing only for people who were invited. It was a movie theatre full of people, and we all had assigned seats.

The movie is called Abundant, about “altruistic” kidney and liver donors. People who donate kidneys/livers to strangers are 1 in 1, million. Extremely rare. We hope to change that and inspire more to donate.

It’s really not that “extreme” to help a fellow sentient being in need. Living organ donation is extremely safe. Yeah, there is potential for rare complications, even death of the donor (my dad’s friend died donating his kidney, but that was 30+ years ago. It’s safer than ever now).

But for someone else, there is no maybe. Someone else is dying now, of organ failure. And there are enough living people to stop that for many. Even if all healthy people register as potential deceased organ donors, many still won’t get the life-saving organ they need because most people don’t die under appropriate circumstances for organ harvesting.

The documentary shows the amazing impact of organ donation and what inspires people to donate to strangers, while still alive.

After the movie ended, we got to meet one of the donors in the movie, in person. She was there in the theatre. They surprised us with her in the flesh at the end lol

She donated her kidney to an anonymous stranger and then donated her liver to another anonymous stranger. There are only a few hundred people in the entire world like that. The first person became a double living organ donor in the 1980’s, I think. But they are becoming more common!

This woman has an incredible story to tell that nothing tops. I heard people crying in the audience around me. Lol

The documentary is for the average person to understand why a person would donate a kidney to a total stranger and to try to normalize it and show that it’s not as “heroic” as the average person thinks.

The target audience of this event (not the documentary itself, but this event it was shown at) was the Hispanic and Black/African American communities because they are the people most in need of organ transplants and unfortunately less likely to get the organ they need. Black people are also less likely to donate their organs even after death, because of what is known as earned mistrust of the medical community.

They have been victimized in ways white people haven’t, because of racism. They have a valid reason to be hesitant to donate their organs, even though the fear isn’t warranted. So the movie attempts to dispel myths surrounding organ donation that may especially provoke fear in non-white people.

The movie was shown for National Multicultural Heritage Month.

They had a few free tickets left, and I was offered one, by the Gift of Life Program where I volunteer! 💙💚

This is the website to the movie, which can be purchased. It’s amazing and inspiring. I can’t wait to buy it and watch it again.

https://abundantmovie.com/

One life touches another life that touches another life…

Everything that’s possible when we just choose to love a stranger.

“Abundant” – Documentary trailer

If you’re a universal lover or just interested in what it’s like to be one, this documentary may be for you. Many who have seen it said it’s transformative and even life-altering to watch.

Everyone is worth it. ❤️

I’m so happy it’s officially Pumpkin Season in Philadelphia now! (It begins in August!) Pumpkin spice coffee and pastries have been released around the city! 🎃☕️ It’s still like 100° every day and doesn’t quite feel like Fall just yet. It’s all gross and hot and humid and sticky and suffocating.

But we’re getting there slowly but surely! I LOVE sweater weather! Some streets are covered with crunchy leaves already, and when shady & breezy, it does give Fall vibes. And I did notice some brief parts of the day are cooler, and my bedroom is cooler with the air conditioning on now. The other day I was in a park for a meeting that evening, about organ donation, and I was slightly cold! I loved it.

Here’s to pumpkin season! (And “extreme altruism!” Lol)

🎃🍁🍂💛🧡🖤☕️🦷

Xoxo Kim

National Donate Life Month {organ donation story} 💚💙

Apr27

My story was selected to be shared on “Share Your Wishes,” a UK based organ donation org. March is Kidney Month, and they were sharing one kidney transplant/donation story a day, all month long.

I’m honored that mine was chosen! 💚💙

Kidney Month is over, but it’s still Donate Life Month! So, I’m sharing here. It’s late but still relevant!

“Kim shares her story in the hope that it will encourage even just one person to consider becoming a living organ donor, and register as a donor too, as both are equally important and very desperately needed.“

“On 16th January 2024, at 37 years old, I donated one of my kidneys to a stranger. It was a lifelong dream of mine since I read a true story, almost two decades earlier, about a man who donated one of his kidneys to an anonymous stranger. I thought it was the most beautiful thing, someone giving a literal piece of himself to save another struggling human.

It deeply resonated with me. I always had the gift of perfect health and wanted someone else to have even just a little bit of what I have. It made perfect sense, if I have more than enough of something, to give some to someone who doesn’t have enough. As soon as I read that story, I knew it would be me one day giving my kidney to a person in need.

Nearly, twenty years later, it was! That beautiful story stayed with me for all those years until I finally got around to making that decision. It was a very easy decision for me to make once all my life circumstances aligned for it to all work out. There was never any hesitation or reconsidering. It was my calling.

I knew that the potential benefits to a kidney recipient outweighed any of the rare potential risks to myself and that even if I did experience a complication at some point, at least it would be because I tried to help someone. I could never regret it.

I knew that maybe I would experience a rare complication, but someone in need of a new kidney did not have the luxury of “maybe” that I had. Someone else was already suffering complications of an illness that I could potentially help.Taking on some of someone else’s pain for a while, to potentially give that person a whole life, was more than worth it.

I did not care who received my kidney. It was a gift given out of love for my fellow human and sentient being. My only hope was to relieve a little bit of the suffering in the world. The less suffering, the better for the whole world.

In the U.S., we have The National Kidney Registry. Through the Registry, we can donate our kidney to an anonymous stranger they choose for us and receive a kidney voucher to give to anyone in the country we choose, usually a friend or family member. That person usually gets a new kidney soon after the donor’s surgery, often in a matter of months.

In my case, I did not know anyone who needed a new kidney, so I decided to look for another stranger to give the voucher to. I just happened to hear about a man in my location who was in urgent need of a new kidney. I looked up his family on social media and offered the kidney voucher, or my actual kidney, if we happened to be a match. No recipient was chosen for me yet.

Coincidentally, we turned out to be a match and only lived fifteen minutes apart! It turned out he wasn’t cleared for transplant yet, though, and still had more work to be done before he could have a transplant.

So, I continued with non-directed donation and gave my kidney to whoever in the Registry could use it. That person’s transplant was an immediate success! I have no contact with him and no information about him other than that he’s a 50 something year old man. I hope that one day we can meet or exchange a letter!

A year after my non-directed kidney donation, the man I gave the kidney voucher to, Greg, received his new kidney through my donation to the anonymous stranger. His transplant was also a success, and he is doing amazing! He felt his new kidney working instantly. He got his whole life back after being so sick for years on dialysis. He is able to work again, eat his favorite foods, go out with friends, volunteer for organ donation, and work on his dream of becoming a dialysis tech to help others in the position he was once in.

We have become great friends and meet up for breakfast and do organ donation volunteer work and attend organ donation events together. We love to bring awareness to living donation and organ donation in general.

I’m thankful that my one donation saved two lives. I think of both of my recipients as my kidney brothers.

My evaluation process to see if I was physically & emotionally healthy enough to donate my kidney, took six months. I loved every second of it. My donation surgery was flawless. I had a smooth & quick recovery. Very little pain and no fatigue. I did not even need Tylenol! No pain meds at all. I was out of work for recovery for three months only because my job is very physical, but I felt like my usual self after only two weeks!

Two years after my kidney donation, I am just as healthy as with two kidneys! I have a medical test once a year to check my kidney function. My recent results showed that my kidney is functioning as well as it possibly could. I have just as much energy and walk 10+ hours a day. I’m a pet nanny/dogwalker for work. I would never know I had surgery or only have one kidney. Nothing at all changed, physically. My scars have (unfortunately! I love them!) faded. I have one lifelong restriction with one kidney, and that is NSAIDS/Natural vitamin supplements. I’m recommended to avoid those.

I have become an organ donor ambassador with The Gift of Life Program where I live, doing volunteer work to bring awareness to organ donation. Organ donation is a beautiful thing that is so life-affirming. So many people, the donors (living and deceased, alike), the donor families, the healthcare workers, and everyone who advocates for the recipients, come together and go to great lengths to save one life.

Donating my kidney expanded my life perspective and showed me just how powerful each of our lives are. Any choice we make, good or bad, has a boundless & unfathomable ripple effect and will change the world in some way.

Anything my kidney recipient/s go on to do in life is something that never would have happened if I did not donate my kidney. They’ll go on to touch more lives, develop relationships, do work and acts of kindness. Even way into the distant future, when my recipients and me are no longer here, the impact of my kidney donation could still be existing.

This goes for any choice we make in life. It will have an impact we can’t foresee and may never know. I never realized this to this extent until I gave my kidney to save a stranger’s life. It’s the most enlightening thing!

Donating my kidney is the best thing I ever did. The sense of relevance and joy and importance never fade, no matter how much time goes by.

I love being part of the whole organ donation family and feel a sense of kinship with all associated with organ donation in any way.

I truly, inadvertently, gave the absolute best gift to myself when I gave the gift of life to someone else. At the end of this life, whenever it may be, this one decision alone makes my whole life a success.

I would make the same decision again & again. I see my experience with the perspective of this amazing thing I got to experience more than look at this amazing thing I did for someone else. It’s better than I ever imagined it would be.

My kidney donation has given me this whole family, a new friend, an expanded life perspective, and most of all, the gift of seeing someone’s whole life change, dramatically, for the best.

Even though it wasn’t my intention or expectation, my experience with kidney donation truly has given me just as much as it has given those who received the gift of life out of it. It has become an essential part of my identity.

In the USA there are over 100,000 people waiting for a life-saving organ, over 90,000 of them are waiting for a new kidney. A healthy person with two kidneys can get one of them off that waiting list and off of dialysis with little to no cost to us.

If I could, I would give a kidney to every person in need! 💚”

Please #ShareYourWishes about your #organdonation decisions with your loved ones, say #YesIDonate and register your decisionNHS Organ Donationtion

Xoxo Kim ❤️

Random Update 💚

Apr27

**Friends & kidney** **buddies for life** 💚

Keep smilin’, keep shinin’
Knowing you can always count on me
For sure
That’s what friends are for
For good times and bad times
I’ll be on your side forevermore
That’s what friends are for

Yesterday, my kidney recipient, Greg, & me attended the Donor Dash, the walk to honor organ donors and their families, and bring awareness to organ donation. We live only fifteen minutes apart and meet up for coffee, walks, breakfast, events, Phillies games…We spent Christmas Eve together and plan to spend Thanksgiving together this year!

The 3k walk takes place every April. It’s hosted by the Gift of Life Program, here in Philadelphia. I’m a trained volunteer organ donor ambassador with the organization. April is National Donate Life Month. 100,000+ people are in need of a new organ, 90,000+ of those, are waiting for a kidney. Every year, we walk together, to honor the donors, celebrate the recipients, and bring hope to those still waiting.

This is me, yesterday, thinking I was going on the walk like this 😆 Turns out, it was freezing cold! I had to put a sweater on. Thankfully, it wasn’t raining.

In less than one week, I’ll be turning 40 years old! Going into middle age fit & healthy. Middle age looks good on me lol My friend (mentioned above) and me are going out for breakfast!

That’s What Friends Are For – Official video

That’s all for now!

Xoxo Kim ❤️

Love those kidneys 🫘💙💚

Mar30

Happy (belated) World Kidney Day!! 💚🫘💙

Here’s your friendly reminder to hit the (water) bottle today!

Show those beans some extra tlc on their special day!!

I meant to post this weeks ago and never got around to it. But, it’s still Kidney Month! So relevant enough lol

#inmarchweweargreen
#worldkidneyday
#livingdonor

Xoxo Kim

Happy Donor Day!! 💙💚

Feb14

Happy Donor Day!! 💙💚

Every February 14th, we celebrate & honor organ donors (and donor families), registered donors, & the beautiful, selfless gift they give or intend to give. The gift of life. ❤️

Yes!

I said yes to organ donation in life & in death.

I am a living donor, a registered potential deceased donor, the friend of an organ recipient, and the daughter of a parent with organ failure, in urgent need of a liver transplant. So, organ donation is something I’m touched by, directly, but even before that, I was a passionate advocate for organ donation.

That’s why I chose to become a living donor when I had no ties to it, personally, yet. I just always thought it’s the most beautiful, ultimate act of love to another human, giving a literal piece of ourselves.
Since I was a little girl, I wanted to be an organ (and blood) donor.

Over 100,000 people are waiting for a life-saving organ.

Only around 1%-2% of the population becomes a deceased organ donor, and less than 0.1% of the general population are living donors.

Approximately 29% of organ donors are living ones.

Around 60% are registered as potential deceased donors (We need more!!). And over 90% of the population supports organ donation, including all major religions.

I am a volunteer organ donor ambassador with the Gift of Life Program here in Philadelphia. I did the training in 2024, the same year I donated my kidney. I work to bring visibility to organ donation and educate people on the topic.

I LOVE my volunteer job. I love being part of this community, doing work that helps literally save lives, and the whole donor/transplant community. I have the privilege of meeting and working with many recipients/recipient families, donor families, those waiting for a new organ, and other living donors.

Recently, I attended one of their summits where I got this sign.

Here’s a tribute/shoutout to all the organ donors & registered donors and especially all the donor families out there who said YES to saving lives, in their own darkest moment.

I always knew donor families are amazing, but I especially realized just how amazing they are after my dad got sick. My dad won’t live long enough to get a deceased donor liver. But all those donor families out there still said YES to saving my dad and others in need like him.

Anyone can say yes or no to organ donation, but the family gets the ultimate say and are the ones who actively make the decision for the deceased donor. A significant amount of families with the opportunity to donate their family member’s organs but say no, regret it three months later. They wish they would have said yes, but were too distraught in the moment. After the initial stage of grief & shock, they realize they would have said yes. I learned this during the ambassador summit.

The most selfless thing someone can do is register as a potential organ donor. Deceased donors get absolutely nothing in return for their incredible act of love. Unlike living donors, they don’t even get to experience the joy of helping someone. People register as organ donors purely to help another human with no possibility of any benefits to themselves.

To register as a potential deceased donor, click on this link.

https://www.organdonor.gov/sign-up

And to register as a living kidney donor:

https://www.kidneyregistry.com/

You can donate to an anonymous stranger here, or if you know someone in need, you can donate for them through here.

To choose your own recipient (stranger) as a living donor:

MatchingDonors.com

This is like a dating profile but to look for your perfect donor/recipient dna match. Most of them are looking for kidneys and livers, mostly kidneys.

You can make an account as a donor and browse the recipient ones, see their pictures, read their stories. If you’re moved by any of them, you can reach out and offer to be evaluated to give them your organ that they need. (Likely a kidney or portion of your liver)

I tried this many years ago, years before donating my kidney. And just couldn’t. I couldn’t choose who gets to live out of so many. They flooded my inbox like sharks on blood as soon as I opened an account. They were imploring for my kidney and sending me pictures of themselves with their kids and grandkids and telling me why it should be them who gets my kidney.

It was devastating. Some of the pictures are still burned into my memory so vividly, today. Pictures of young parents kissing their kids, pictures of old people hugging their grandkids, a picture of a young ER nurse in need of a new kidney, in her blue hospital scrubs at work, asking me to save her life so she can continue to save others, a picture of a baby in his crib with a big smile on his face, a picture of a young dad and his kids in a park with the biggest smiles…How could I possibly choose?

I wasn’t even sure I was going to choose my own recipient and was just trying it out. I had no idea potential recipients would flood my inbox, telling me how much they don’t want to die, and pleading for me to let them live.

They were all ages, infants up to 80+ years old. Most were searching for themselves, others were searching for a family member or friend in need. All of them tugged on my heartstrings, some more than others. But I couldn’t choose.

I came close to choosing one. A 50 something year old man, the dad of two adult daughters. He was too humble to request a kidney for himself, so his daughters were for him. I wrote a message that I was going to send to his daughters.

But, then, I just couldn’t choose.

That’s when I knew for sure that non-directed kidney donation was for me. It always resonated with me more, anyway. Just tossing my kidney out to whoever catches it.

I closed the account. It still haunts me today.

Years later, my kidney was given to an anonymous 50 something year old man through a non-directed donation.

Anyone interested in donating to a stranger of your choice can sign up through that link.

If you choose someone and you’re not a match, you may be able to do paired exchange or the voucher program where you donate to an anonymous stranger chosen for you, so the person of your choice gets an organ through your donation.

We’ll never have enough deceased donors because almost no one dies under the appropriate circumstances. Even if everyone in the world registered as a potential organ donor, there would be an extreme shortage of organs for those in need. More people registering would help, though. So, living donors are very much needed.

We especially need kidneys. Of the 100,000+ people waiting for a new organ, over 90,000 are waiting for a kidney.

One person can donate two organs while alive! Usually a kidney and portion of the liver. It’s extremely rare. There’s only a few hundred double living donors in the entire world. Not a few hundred a year. A few hundred EVER! Many have donated one organ to a stranger and then another organ later to another stranger. Some donated to a family member or friend and loved the experience so much, they went on to donate a different organ to a stranger.

I recommend registering as a deceased donor!! We don’t need our organs when we’re gone and have no use for them, but someone else does.

I’m an atheist, but one of my favorite quotes has always been “Don’t take your organs to Heaven, Heaven knows we need them here.”

💙💚

#organdonorssavelives

Xoxo Kim

The morgue 🖤

Feb7

I just walked through a morgue!!

It was a pleasant surprise. I had no idea I would be in a morgue today lol

I was trying to be discreet about taking pictures. Lol I would have taken more, but it was awkward 😆

It was cold in there.

This is one of the freezers and a gurney they lay the organ donors on.

I did not see any bodies. They were going to show us a kidney being pumped, getting ready for donation, but they send all the kidneys to Penn Hospital now.

This is a morgue only for kidney/tissue donors (just tissue now). There are a couple operating rooms in there where they remove them for donation. They also have the consent rooms where they take the families in to consent to donating their family member’s organ. It’s very sweet, whenever a family says “yes,” the staff puts a butterfly sticker up on the windows of the consent rooms, to honor the organ donor and the family’s gift of life.

I saw the elevator where the bodies are brought up. It’s a different elevator than the ones the living people use. It’s interesting because I have been around that building frequently at all different parts of the day, for many years, and have never seen a body being taken in or out. I have, very rarely, seen kidneys/tissue coming out in coolers to be taken to hospitals for transplant. But never a full body.

This morgue was specifically for kidney & tissue donors, but, now, they just do tissue.

Love it!

#organdonorssavelives 💚💙🦋

Xoxo Kim

My sweet Kidneyversary gift to myself! 🩷

Jan17

Here it is! My custom-made gift to myself! An adorable kidney plushie with an extra vein! My donated kidney has an extra vein, so I requested the seller to crochet an extra one. I also chose the color and little eye lashes. How sweet!

She’s a nurse who makes the most adorable organ plushies.

It’s hilarious because it’s my left kidney that was donated, and this kidney here is a right one. I forgot to request it be a left kidney 😆 She automatically makes right ones. Now, I have two right kidneys.

My actual right kidney doesn’t have an extra vein (it does have an extra artery). 🤣 So, this kidney can’t represent either one, accurately lol

I LOVE this, though, it’s the cutest. It’s perfect, just how I imagined.

Kidneys are just so adorable. They’re the cutest organ. And they pee! For some reason, that makes them even cuter. It reminds me of a pet or something lol 😍🫘💙💚

Xoxo Kim

Happy Birthday, Lefty!! 💙💚🫘

Jan17

Happy, Happy Birthday, Lefty!! 🫘💚💙 And many, many more!! 🥳🎊🎉🍻 🎂

I lit the candle for my dogs because they get special treats for every single special occasion and holiday. As soon as they see a cake with a candle lit, they go wild, yelling for their special treat. They know the words “cake” and “birthday.” So, this was a “birthday” for them, too. Lol

Xoxo Kim

Two Years!! 💚🫘💙

Jan16

“To save one life, it’s as if you saved the world.”

(Content warning ⚠️: There’s a picture of a human kidney in this post at the end lol)

January 16th.

My favorite day of the year! The one day a year where it’s still appropriate for me to brag years later 😆 To everyone else, it’s old news now, but, to me, it never gets old lol

Each day leading up to 1/16, I can’t wait. It’s like having two birthdays, except even better. I even buy myself a cake and gift to celebrate the best thing I ever did.

On 1/16/2024, I donated one of my kidneys to a stranger.

It was my calling and lifelong dream.

It was a gift given out of love for my fellow human & sentient being without care about what person were to receive it. The less suffering in the world, the better.

I knew the potential benefits to a recipient outweigh the rare potential short-term & long-term risks to myself. And even if I were to experience one, at least it’s because I tried to help someone. I could never regret it (Unless I find out he’s a Cowboys fan 😆 JK, I always have to throw that joke in somewhere, I even wrote it in my thank you letter to my transplant team lol)

My decision was inspired by a true story I read many years before, about a man who donated his kidney to an anonymous stranger. I thought it was the most beautiful thing I ever read, to give a literal piece of himself to save another.

I instantly knew I would do the same one day. Almost two decades later, I did! If I have more than enough of something for me, it makes complete sense to give some to someone who needs it.

Two men were saved through my one kidney donation. I volunteered to give my kidney to whoever needed it and was a match for me. It was an anonymous donation that was given to “the next person on the wait list.”

I share a set of kidneys with a 50 something year old man in Minnesota. I love to joke that I’m in two places at once and can pee for two 😆

Because I donated through the National Kidney Registry, I was given a kidney voucher to give to anyone in the country I wanted. I chose someone who wasn’t close enough to the top of the deceased wait list but was in urgent need. I did not know anyone who needed a new kidney and so gave it to another stranger I heard needed one.

He was brought into the system to receive an anonymous living donor kidney because I gave him the voucher. He got the kidney of a living person who was donating for someone who isn’t a match for that person.

My kidney voucher recipient, Greg, received his new kidney just over a year after my non-directed donation!

Coincidentally, we live only fifteen minutes apart and are a match!

So, I was going to donate to him directly, before an anonymous recipient was chosen for me. But, he had some more work before being cleared for transplant, so I moved forward with non-directed donation.

We are now good in-person friends!

We have similar views and values and some similar interests and sense of humor. I wasn’t planning on becoming friends with either of my recipients. Just planned on helping someone and going on my way with no strings attached. But we have become good friends and turned out to have much in common!

I have no contact with the person who has the kidney I gave. Maybe one day!

I think of both of my recipients as my kidney brothers. 💙

It was and still is the most incredible thing I ever did. I had no idea the significant change it would inspire in me. A change that has become even more prominent as the years go by.

My intention was only to help someone, but in the process, it also changed me for the better.

No one else can see it on the outside, but on the inside, I am forever changed. It has become so much an ingrained & essential part of my identity that it’s like I wouldn’t even be the me I am now without this experience. Sometimes, it’s like nothing else even matters when I think of it.

It serves as a kind of buffer against the stresses and disappointments and tragedies of life. Whenever I feel something dragging me down, I remember this, and it pulls me right back up. It brings me comfort in situations where I would be inconsolable. When my depression flares up with feelings of worthlessness & insecurity, I remember my own life literally, physically, saved someone else’s, and am reminded of how powerful & valuable each life is, and I push through, knowing I can do even more good.

When I look around at all the tragedy & destruction in the world, all the hatred and wrongs and evil, I am reminded that I did the absolute best I could to counter that, by loving my fellow humans in the ultimate way there is to love: Showing them that their own life matters enough for me to risk my own to save theirs, no matter who they are.

I’m like a colorful 3d version of what used to be a grey stick figure. It made me better in a general way. Even when I’m not consciously thinking about it, I can feel it.

It’s not that I was unhappy before or anything like that, it’s just the experience added so much depth to me in a way that’s unimaginable & indescribable. But I tried my best to put it into words.

I wrote a very long (you know me with the paragraphs long essays 😆) thank you letter to my transplant team at Penn Hospital before being released as a patient recently (we stay a patient for two years after our donation surgery). They loved it.

I would like to share part of that letter here:

I used to think of living kidney donation in a limited way, that it helps someone live, and their friends and family get to still have them around. And that was motivation enough for me to regift one of mine.

But, after this experience, I began to realize it’s so much more expansive than that. Countless things are going to happen when a person’s life is saved or changed that would never happen if they weren’t saved or changed for the better. It has an unfathomable and boundless ripple effect.

That person will go on to do things that will contribute to an infinite amount of other things. They’ll do work, engage in acts of kindness, have many encounters with various people, develop relationships, maybe have kids, and those kids will do an infinite number of things, on & on. When one person is saved, their life will have a limitless impact on the world, there’s no telling how many more will be helped, touched, or saved in various ways because that one person’s life was spared.

Even way into the very distant future, the impact of our choice to donate our kidney could still be existing even if it doesn’t involve the recipient or donor anymore. This isn’t just true for organ donation but any choice we make. Any choice, good or bad, any act of kindness, can have a lasting effect we can’t foresee and may never know.

This is true for every single one of us. We all impact everything around us in ways we may never know. Each impact we have will go on to create more effects. On & on & on.

The decision we make to give life doesn’t only help our organ recipient and voucher recipient, if we have one, but every single life they go on to touch.

We have no idea how powerful our own life is, no matter who we are or what we do. Every little thing we do touches someone or something for better or for worse.

If the thread that is us was missing, the uni-verse would not be the same. Part of it would unravel. We’re all connected in an infinite amount of intricate ways we’ll never fully understand. We’re all a thread in the tapestry of life, holding each other together.

After giving my kidney to save a stranger’s life, I understand this now in a deep way I never did before. It’s so enlightening.

I love being part of the whole organ donation family and feel a sense of kinship & belonging with all the other donors, donor families, recipients, and their families.

My body “lost” a kidney, but I received so much more in return.

My kidney donation has given me this whole family, a new friend, an expanded life perspective, and most of all, the gift of seeing someone’s whole life change, dramatically, for the best.

Even though it wasn’t my intention or expectation, my experience with kidney donation truly has given me just as much as it has given those who received the gift of life out of it.

💚

That’s an “excerpt” out of my thank you letter to my healthcare team.

I dropped off a copy of it in person along with gifts, and gave six of the team members a copy, personally, the ones I worked with most closely. They were so thankful and said they were blown away!

My surgeon called me and asked for my permission to share it in a mass e-mail within the Penn network lol Of course, I said yes!

It took MANY people to come together to save the two who were saved by my kidney donation, not just me. It took their friends & family & others advocating for them and helping with resources, and all the healthcare workers involved. Both of them received a kidney not only because of me but because someone else donated a kidney also.

The man who shares my set of kidneys with me received mine because someone donated theirs for him to get mine. If it wasn’t for Greg’s family & friends sharing his need for a new kidney, that information would have never reached me.

That’s the beautiful thing about organ donation & kidney chains, it’s so life-affirming and shows just how valuable one life is, that countless people go to great lengths to save that life.

I get all the credit (lol), but, truly, we ALL played an equally crucial role. If just one of us was missing, things would be significantly different. It’s possible someone may not even be here today.

It’s a beautiful thing to be a small part of.

The scars have faded. But the joy and sense of relevance never fade no matter how much time goes by. It’s not on my mind as much as in the beginning, but it’s always with me, and when thoughts of it or reminders pop up, it’s like an instant dopamine surge. Like being in love & walking on air.

I truly, inadvertently, gave the absolute best gift to myself when I gave the gift of life to someone else.

At the end of this life, whenever it may be, this one decision alone makes my whole life a success.

I would make the same decision again & again.

I also thank my transplant team at Penn for trusting me to donate my kidney! I take the best care of my remaining kidney and am overly cautious with it. I don’t ingest anything that can hurt it without checking first and make sure to water it regularly!

I am just as healthy with one kidney as with two.

I share my story for three reasons, because it makes me happy, because it uplifts others to read/hear (who doesn’t like a good Hallmark-like story 😆), and because it brings visibility to organ donation and may hopefully inspire even just one person to become a living donor and/or register as a potential deceased donor.

There are a couple of people alive today because I read that story many years ago. If I just heard we can donate our kidney to a stranger, I may not have, I’m not sure. But reading a true story about someone, personally, who did, it made me see something in myself like that person and motivated me even years later.

You never know who you or your life may be inspiring!

I see my experience with the perspective of this amazing thing I got to experience more than look at this amazing thing I did for someone else. It’s better than I ever imagined it would be.

And two years later, it makes me even happier than when I first donated my kidney because it took a while to process and finally fully sink in, this profound & rare thing I did, because I have since become an organ donor ambassador with the Gift of Life Program in Philadelphia, bringing awareness to organ donation, and get to work with and connect with others who share my passion, and because now my kidney voucher recipient got his new kidney, and because we are now friends, which we weren’t really in the beginning.

We attend organ donation events together, living donor celebrations, do 3k walks for organ donation/kidney disease awareness…It just gets better & better.

Cheers to my kidney twin in Minnesota, and Happy Kidneyversary!! 🥂🎉🎊

Many, many more for the both of us 💚

Also, will celebrate my other kidney brother’s Kidneyversary coming up in early February!!

“He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.”

💙🫘💚

Xoxo Kim

Health is wealth 💙💚

Jan16

(Those things on my legs are not bruises and nothing contagious lol It looked much worse but is healing now. It’s an allergic reaction. It affects various parts of my body, my legs get hit the hardest. It’s literally impossible to avoid my trigger. Thankfully, it never affects my breathing, even though it can)

This was my FB post earlier, just sharing here!

Yesterday was a special day! It was the last day of my living kidney donation journey at Penn Transplant Institute!!

We stay a patient at the transplant center we donate at throughout our evaluation to become a living organ donor and then two years after the donation surgery, if we get accepted. Then, they let us go, and we’re on our own.

The first two years of medical test results after donation surgery is used for living kidney donation research. Our transplant team tracks our results to use for statistics & the future of living donation. It’s a requirement we have to agree to, to get accepted. We don’t pay for our medical testing the first two years or throughout our evaluation. The recipient’s health insurance does.

I was a patient there for almost three years 💚

My journey began in March 2023 when, at the spur of the moment, I filled out an application on a train one night after work, to give my kidney to anyone who needed it, and ended in January 2026, with a perfectly functioning solitary kidney, and two lives saved. 💙

I get this heartwarming feeling in my chest just writing this.

I loved every second of it and am going to miss it! It was nothing but happy & positive. It’s always uplifting to interact with the Penn staff, whether on a video call, through the patient portal, phone calls, or in person. I still remember so many of my interactions there and where I was when I got phone calls & messages.

Yesterday morning, I had my last appointment there.

It felt like a kind of graduation day. Lol Some (medical) tests and surveys for the last years, and now I’m done!

It feels like something being complete or accomplished. There was something very sentimental about my last day there. It made me think back to the beginning, the thrill of anticipation and new beginnings, always having this big thing to look forward to. Now, it’s already three years later!

I decided I should do something to celebrate 🥳 So, I bought myself a pretty and very inexpensive necklace at a boutique lol I chose a heart to represent my act of love. I’m not wearing it in this picture because I want to paint it with clear nail polish to preserve it as long as possible lol This necklace is one my recipient bought me (it doesn’t have to be painted lol)

I never had the perfect grades in school to be a student at UPenn. It’s one of those elite universities.

But I did have the perfect kidney to be a patient at the living donor center at UPenn hospital!

Just like the university, it’s very difficult to get accepted into Penn as a living donor, they’re very selective. They must have really wanted that kidney lol 😆

I got my two year kidney function test results! And then, we talked about my results at my appointment yesterday and how to keep my remaining kidney safe throughout life.

Once a year, I have to get medical tests to see how my remaining kidney is holding up after losing its counterpart. I also have a glucose test each year. And I have to have my blood pressure checked every six months or less.

Sometimes, after kidney donation, the remaining kidney fails, and the donor needs a transplant (This is VERY rare). It doesn’t always happen right away if it’s going to. It can happen at any point after donation surgery. It usually happens within the first ten years when it does happen. There’s never a point where we’re “out of the woods,” though.

We all know this before donating. They make it very clear. During the psych evaluation, they ask us how we would feel if we ever need a kidney transplant after donating ours.

Can’t say I would quite like it, but it was worth the risk. I would get to say it’s because I helped someone. So many are sick for no good reason. I would never regret it.

Someone else already needed a transplant NOW. I think of the fact that “maybe” I could need a kidney transplant later, as a privilege or “luxury” that someone else did not have. For someone else, there was no maybe.

So, we’re recommended to get lifelong tests once a year after leaving our transplant center.
We can also become diabetic after donation. That’s the number one reason for kidney failure in the U.S. So we should have a glucose test at least once a year.

Anything that isn’t good for two kidneys is especially not good for only one. When there’s two kidneys, they each take a hit of whatever is a.ttacking them, so it’s split evenly. With only one, it takes it all on its own. This is why I’m generally keeping my sodium, protein, and added sugar low/in moderation.

Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels!

I have to avoid NSAIDS & herbal/vitamin supplements. It’s one of the very few lifelong restrictions.

Donating a kidney also puts us at an elevated risk for elevated blood pressure that can require medication to keep under control. And seriously elevated blood pressure can damage the kidneys. That can also develop at any point, even years after donation.

It’s not extremely uncommon to develop blood pressure problems after donation because the kidneys regulate blood pressure. Having one removed can result in needing medication to keep it under control.

So we need our blood pressure checked every six or less months.

If it does happen, it’s usually easy to manage. My diet & lifestyle are already conducive to having healthy blood pressure, and I have no family history of any problems. So, that lowers my risk, and if it does happen, medication would control it without me having to do much else.

Everyone can actually benefit by annual kidney & glucose checks and frequent blood pressure checks. Even with two healthy kidneys. It can happen to anyone. And many people have some elevated risk factors. There are often no symptoms at first. If we get regular checks, they can catch it before it’s too advanced.

Righty is holding its own!!

Two years later, and it still got it!

My solitary kidney is functioning perfectly and as expected! It’s kicking a.ss all on its own lol No concerns at all.

My glucose, on point. Not diabetic or prediabetic.

Everything else was checked, including my sodium, potassium, calcium….it’s all perfect. All within normal range.

My most recent blood pressure was 104/72. Perfect.

My body weight is perfect.

There was nothing in my test results even slightly off.

At my visit yesterday, we went over my general diet, lifestyle, any medications I take (none),…literal perfection. (with the exception of my dental issues lol)

They don’t want anything at all to change and want everything to remain stable. “If perfect’s what you’re searching for, then, just stay the same.” 😆 lol jk

Going into middle age (except I feel 25 years old lol) healthy as can be!

It’s like an early 40th b-day gift to find that I’m completely healthy. 💚

Health is the greatest wealth.

I thank my super kidney for holding up so well. It stepped up to the plate and picked up the slack, no problem! And still going strong after two years!

I’m thankful for my amazing health not only for the good it does me but what it allowed me to do for someone else. It’s a gift to be able to share it and make someone else healthy, too. If I had another one to give, I sure would! 💙

I loved my experience at Penn and am proud & honored to get to call myself one of their “alum.” Lol

Yesterday, at my last appointment with one of my transplant team members, she thanked me again for my kidney donation (and for the thank you letter & gifts I dropped off, recently). She said it was an amazing thing to do for the whole community. I loved hearing that. The impact of organ donation is expansive & lasting. It never loses its relevance no matter how many years later.

I love being part of this whole Penn living donor community. I woke up this morning with that sentimental feeling again of my patient journey there being over. But I’m always going to be part of the community and have a place there. (They even took our pictures to put up in their center and had us sign a living donor flag! I love that 💙)

I plan to keep in touch with the staff through the events that take place every year, like the organ donor walks and celebrations. They asked for my recipient and me to join them at the events. They LOVE our story.

During the holiday season, along with some gifts, I took them a pages-long thank you letter, sharing our entire heartwarming story and all the amazing things we can do after transplant/donation. They said they were all blown away! They said they don’t usually get to know the full story or situation of their living donors, just some details.

So, they loved getting to read our whole beautiful story. It brightened their day to receive the gifts and letter. My surgeon called me and asked for my permission to share it!

I encourage anyone who has had an amazing healthcare team or healthcare worker taking care of them or a family member, to give a small gift and/or thank you letter/card (if allowed, not all places allow their staff to accept gifts or even cards or letters, so checking with the hospital’s HR is best).

It can leave a lasting impact or just brighten the day of someone doing one of the most important kinds of work there is, saving lives. They may even remember it years later or be uplifted on a stressful day when they see or think of the reminder. I don’t think healthcare workers hear thank you enough even though they’re not expecting it.

I love that I was able to send a bit of joy & love to my team at the end of my journey, to say thank you.

It uplifted them even more than I realized, and they couldn’t thank me enough. I wasn’t even expecting a thank you at all! But a few of them called me on their own cell phones to thank me and told me again at my last appointment yesterday. Knowing this, I definitely recommend thank you gifts, cards, and/or letters to healthcare workers.

💙💚

And today is a BIG day! It’s my 2nd KIDNEYVERSARY/Lefty’s 2nd birthday!!! 🫘

I ordered a custom cake & gift for myself to celebrate. I can’t wait to open my gift later today lol It’s something I had custom-made on Etsy. I kept it in the package because I did not want to see it til my day! Never even saw a picture online since it’s custom-made.

In the back of my head, I kept thinking I was going to cave and rip it open sooner. Lol I’m like a little girl who can’t wait for her birthday gift. But I managed to make it to the day! I’ll share it later, along with the cake and an anniversary post or two. 🩷 I have to go pick the cake.

My dogs love birthdays and candles. They get special treats for EVERY special occasion and holiday. They know the word “cake” and “birthday.” When they see a candle being lit, they go wild, jumping around, barking, waiting for their special treat. So, I got them a special treat and decided to light a candle on the cake later, so they can get all happy lol It will be a “birthday” for them 😆😍

💚🫘💙

#kidneydonor

Xoxo Kim