Tag Archive | organ donation

He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother 💚

My kidney recipient & me!

I met Greg when he was on dialysis. Now he’s healthy enough to do everything! In 2023, my mom told me about a Philadelphia man, who was a stranger to me, in urgent need of a new kidney. He wasn’t close enough to the top of the wait list. I looked him up on Facebook & offered him my kidney. It was the easiest decision in the world for me to make. There was no hesitation. I always wanted to regift one of my kidneys to a stranger because I have always had the gift of perfect health & wanted someone else to have that, too. I was already planning on giving one of my kidneys to “the next person on the wait list.”

Greg & me turned out to be not only a perfect match but only living fifteen minutes apart! It turned out that Greg was not cleared for transplant. My clearance for donation was running out. Eventually, I would have had to do the six month long medical/psych evaluation all over again with no guarantee that I would be accepted again. They’re very strict.

So, on 1/16/2024, I did what I always planned and donated my kidney to the next person who could use it, which happened to be a 50 something year old man in Minnesota who I never met & have no contact with. Since I did this through the National Kidney Registry, I was given a kidney voucher to give to anyone in the country. I gave it to Greg, and a year after my kidney donation, Greg received his new kidney through my donation to someone else.

Two lives saved through my one donation! Now I have two kidney brothers. Maybe I’ll meet the other one someday. In May, Greg & me had the honor of being invited to Penn Transplant Institute’s first living organ donor celebration! I am Penn’s first living donor to sign their Donate Life flag that will be hung up at the transplant center!!

Greg always wanted to do the 3k walk for organ donation, & this year was the first he was healthy enough with his new kidney. We did the walk together!

I’m just as healthy & energetic as I was with two kidneys. The joy of my experience never fades.

My body “lost” a kidney, but I gained a lifelong friend.

What a joy, what a life!

Our story is one for the books!

Donating my kidney is the best thing I ever did. I always say I wish I had 100 more kidneys to give to 100 more people. 💙🫘💚

He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother – Bill Medley

Xoxo Kim

#donatelifemonth 💚💙🫘

Apr30

💚🫘💙

#donatelifemonth

Scarred & beautiful 💚💙

Laparoscopic kidney donation scars at three months 💚🫘

It’s the most amazing experience to think about how two anonymous strangers in two different parts of the country both laid on an operating table on the same morning to become forever connected, an unbreakable bond formed. This is what it is to be “intimate strangers.” I have heard of that term now & again and never thought much of it or understood until that day my kidney began making pee in someone else’s body, someone I have never laid eyes on and probably never will. It will never fail to amaze me! Instead of fading, each day, that feeling of awe becomes deeper & deeper, and so does the joy and warm fuzzies. My scars are always a reminder of that beautiful experience. Whenever I step out of a shower and look into the mirror or take my pj’s off to get dressed in the mornings or wear a belly shirt and happen to see the scar near my bellybutton (the only one that’s really very visible with clothes on), I remember and smile.

Many living kidney donors feel strongly that we should be humble and not speak of our act of kindness and always divert the attention to somewhere else when someone else brings it up so as not to seem self important or arrogant or like we’re looking for recognition. In fact this seems almost like the consensus in the living donor community that it’s not to be talked about much outside of living donor spaces. But my experience is too beautiful not to share, and I am too thankful for the honor, to be so humble as to never speak of it. It’s like when moms share their birthing stories or brag about their kids, (usually) not acting like they’re better than other moms or childless women, just thankful for their own gift and celebrating by sharing. I don’t look for praise, but I acknowledge the fact that my act of compassion & courage is worthy of the kind comments it receives when it comes up. Sharing our experience as an act of gratitude is not the same as arrogantly boasting. I will always share my experience as a celebration & for awareness of living organ donation. If that gets me a few compliments along the way, I welcome them.

Three months later and I am 100% the way I was before my body lost a vital organ. No energy changes, no pain, no anxiety or depression, no complications, no lifestyle changes or meds needed. The first two weeks after the surgery were a bit challenging, but just less than two weeks after, I was jokingly asking if they even took the kidney because everything felt almost 💯. Any pain or discomfort I experienced only confirmed that I made the best decision. It reminded me of the pain & sickness my recipient must have been living in indefinitely. It’s a humbling experience to temporarily take on someone else’s pain & sickness so they can live a life without it.

Best thing I ever did!

It’s not for everyone, and there are (rare) potential risks for very very serious life altering complications (and death during and just after the donation surgery). But I encourage anyone it resonates with to consider learning about living kidney donation and possibly becoming a living donor, as there is an extreme shortage of kidneys for transplant. There are people dying & living in sickness who don’t have to.

If you don’t know anyone in need of a new kidney, you can become an altruistic (non directed) donor and donate to “the next person on the wait list,” like I did. (It’s really a system of people in need, and they find the best match depending upon various factors, not literally a list where there is a specific person who is “next” like with the deceased donor list.) It will potentially give the person 25+ years of life & health. Even if it doesn’t work, which is rare, living donor kidneys nearly always work long-term, it will remind the person their life matters and that someone cared enough to give them a literal piece of themselves to save & enhance their life. If you donate through the National Kidney Registry as a non directed/altruistic donor, there’s a chance you’ll save multiple lives by beginning a kidney chain. This means multiple transplants will take place that would not have if not for your altruistic donation. It’s truly incredible! This happens when a potential donor is not a match for their intended recipient, so they agree to donate to an anonymous stranger so their person will get the next kidney available. My kidney recipient had someone wanting to donate to them but wasn’t a match, so that donor donated to an anonymous stranger so my recipient could get the next available kidney. The next available kidney happened to be mine! So at least two kidney transplants took place involving my one donation, my recipient’s and the person’s who got the kidney of the person who wanted to donate to my recipient but wasn’t a match. Sometimes kidney chains are super long and span across the whole country, set in motion by one altruistic donation. It’s beautiful being linked to all these strangers through the gift of life.

If you have no one in particular in mind and choose to be a non directed/altruistic donor, you can also donate a kidney voucher to another stranger if you wish, one of your choice. You can look for someone to give it to, like I did. When we donate our kidney to an anonymous stranger, the National Kidney Registry gives us a kidney voucher to give to whoever we want, so that person will get a new kidney usually shortly after our donation surgery. It brings that person into the system so they’ll be matched with a living donor kidney when one becomes available.

I have always been a universal lover and got to live it in action the day I gave my kidney to an anonymous stranger. 🫘

It’s the experience of a lifetime! 💚💙

Xoxo Kim 💕

The place where the Light enters you 💛

Mar1

The wound is the place where the Light enters you. 💛

Look how perfect & beautiful my incision/scar is!! It looks so good. The covering stuff holding it closed just came off, so I can finally see it in all its raw perfection & magnificent glory.

It’s amazing how just six weeks ago I was laying on an operating table out cold & cut completely open to give life to someone else and already my body is so healed. The scar is delicate and perfect. So powerful in all its subtlety & elegance.

My beautiful life affirming scar.

Isn’t it amazing that a whole life was saved & enhanced because of this small, thin, & delicate line on my abdomen? Awe inspiring. Something so small and seemingly insignificant, just a thin line that no one else may ever see and will eventually fade to almost nothing and be nearly invisible, yet it’s a symbol of one of the most significant things there is to do: giving life. It takes my breath away.

I remember waking up in the operating room groggy and amazed. There was no pain. (Other than a migraine-like headache) I instantly remembered what I did. It was hours later, but it felt like mere seconds ago that I was there on that table going under while the doctors & nurses laughed & joked and played what I vaguely remember being “Oh, Pretty Woman,” by Roy Orbison, for me as I was drifting off.

I couldn’t believe I just had surgery. It felt too good to be true. My body felt strong, healthy, & alive, even with all the grogginess, exhaustion, and headache, and one less organ. I couldn’t believe it finally happened after all these years of dreaming. It felt so easy. All I had to do was lay on a table and go to sleep for a couple hours so someone else can live. For me, it was that simple.

It was an extremely easy decision to make. It was my calling. There was never any hesitation, uncertainty, or question about it. I heard the call and answered.

It doesn’t matter that I may never get a thank you or see the impact of my act of compassion. The potential is what matters, potential to save and enhance a life. And there is joy & value in the act of giving, itself, without getting any results or gratitude for the act. Just the act alone is enough. And it doesn’t matter that the person is an anonymous stranger I may never lay eyes on. We are all the same at our core.

You are Me
I am You
We are One

I remember waking up with three doctors and one nurse standing at the end of my hospital bed in the OR before being wheeled to my room, all cheerfully saying “Good morning, Kimberly, you’re awake now, Kimberly, good morning, Kimberly, you’re awake, Kimberly….” over and over and over until I fully came to. They were all wearing masks & hair caps. But I could see their smiling eyes. And I knew. I knew it was a success. That pleasant experience of them gently guiding me out of insentience is one of my favorite memories of the whole journey. It made all the difference, waking up to that human compassion & positivity gave me a very different experience than if I would have woken up alone in a dark room in a cold, clinical setting of uncertainty. I will forever cherish it.

So many healthcare workers were in & out of the operating room praising me for giving the gift of life & health.

The surgeon said our kidney is beautiful. While I was still asleep, it was already on its way to do its job and save a life. It began working instantly in its new person’s body.

And now I am here, with this permanent beautiful, perfect reminder on my body of that beautiful, perfect day.

1/16/2024

💚🫘💚🫘

#endthewaitlist

#endthewaitlist

I hope you’re having a beautiful day or night wherever in the world you are! 💚

Xoxo Kim

We got the call!!! 💚 {Organ donation/transplant update}

Dec23

We got The Call!! 💚

On January 16, 2024, my kidney will have its new forever home with a person in Minnesota!

I am going to share a set of kidneys with an anonymous person somewhere else in the country! 😭😍

My kidney is going to the next person on the waiting list in the U.S who I am a match for. My person was found in Minnesota! (I’m in Pennsylvania) That’s all the information they will give me. In altruistic donations like this, which are always anonymous, it’s possible even with very little information that the donor/recipient can potentially identify each other if they try, so they give us as little information as possible about each other to avoid that. Sometimes the transplant teams reveal the gender & age. I did not get that info yet. I may or may not later.

How amazing is this!!! What a rare & beautiful experience, to get to give someone else the gift of life through organ donation and while being alive. 💚💚💚🫘 🫘 🫘 It was a long journey of extensive medical & psychiatric evaluation to be sure I’m physically & emotionally fit to donate a kidney and so much paperwork. But here we are! In altruistic donations in the U.S it’s possible for the anonymity to eventually be broken, but the recipient has to be the one to initiate it. If the donor agrees, they can communicate. In some cases the recipient reaches out through the transplant center to thank & update the donor on how the transplant is working for them. In other cases, the recipient never does. Either way is good with me! I’m just looking to potentially help someone! 💚

My surgery will take place at 6:00am on 1/16/2024 at Penn Transplant Institute here in Philadelphia. Lefty will be shipped on an airplane to its new person. I get to keep Righty. I’ll be in the hospital for at least two days, no more than four days as long as there are no complications. They said most likely two days. I will be accepting visitors! All are welcome, even strangers! You can let me know in advance or just show up as a surprise (bringing gifts! It can be anything, I’m easy to please 😆 jk, just your presence is enough)! The more, the merrier lol

I couldn’t help it and ordered a sterling silver necklace with our transplant date as a mini celebration as soon as I was told my match was found and our date!! It wasn’t a wise decision because it’s not uncommon for transplant dates to change if donor or recipient wakes up with a sore throat that day or catches a virus just before or something changes with one of the surgeon’s schedules…But I couldn’t resist! So let’s hope so much it doesn’t change! The necklace was not expensive, but it would be a waste of material and time for the seller/creator on Etsy. But I’m hopeful and staying positive it will remain that date!!

Anyone want to guess the gender of my kidney sib? Girl? 🩷 Boy? 🩵 Other? 💜 I’ll see if we can get a gender reveal going lol

#endthewaitinglist
#organdonationsaveslives
#livingkidneydonor

I’m wishing you love & light and a beautiful day or night, wherever in the world you are!! 😁

Heal The World – Michael Jackson

Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You – Sugarloaf

XOXO Kim ♥️

Altruistic kidney donation 💚🫘

Sep24

This is what I’m doing!! Likely in October this year!! They’re looking for my match now somewhere in the country (there are multiple matches). My dna is entered into the kidney registry database, then hospitals around the country with a patient who is a match for me will receive the notification, and one of the hospitals will accept my kidney based on the date I choose and other factors! My kidney will be removed here in Philadelphia at Penn Transplant Institute and sent to its new home on an airplane! 🫘💚 It will likely give someone 20(+) more years of health & life.

In 2019, there were 387 altruistic (NDD) kidney donors in the US & 184 in 2014. It’s becoming more common! I first heard of it being a thing when I was a 20 something year old girl. At one point only friends & family could legally donate, and people were trying to get that changed. When it became legal, I read a story about a man who donated one of his healthy kidneys to a complete stranger in need, not even a stranger he encountered and wanted to help personally, but a stranger he never met or saw and knew nothing at all about and maybe never would, the person next on the transplant wait list who he matched with. I *knew* that’s something I would do and felt in my bones it would someday be me giving my kidney to a random stranger. Now all these years later, here I finally am!!

I’m so thankful & happy & honored that I have been chosen by the PENN Transplant team to be one this year! What a rare and beautiful thing to be part of, so life affirming and universal loving. 💚💚💚💙💙💙

I did the dna test last week!

#letsdothis
#LoveSomeoneToday
#YoureSomeonesType
#bethematch
#universallove

I hope you’re having a beautiful day or night wherever in the world you are! ❤️

Xoxo Kim

The gift of life [and love] ❤

Jun19

Penn Medicine – Organ transplantation/donation

When it comes to love, you gamble when you need to…you’ll maybe break your heart on one unlucky throw but then again, you’ll never know.

You’ll Never Know – Ringo Star

This is a screen capture of some info. Off of the pennmedicine website for organ transplantation/donation. There are too many people in need of organs. I’m not sure if everyone knows that if we are generally healthy, we can donate a kidney to someone, even a random stranger, while we are still here, alive. And live donation is generally more successful than donation after the donor has died(especially if the donor & recipient are biologically related). You can see these facts on the Penn Med page, above.

I see so many things with people saying they want to help save others after they die and people saying they don’t like the thought of their organs being inside someone else “after death” but guess what?! We don’t have to wait to die! It seems like people are under the impression that organ donation has to wait til after death. Of course for some organs, such as the heart, we have to die first. But kidney, partial liver, bone marrow…can be donated now. Also, blood, platelets, plasma red…can be donated every once in a while.

Red Cross – blood drives (in U.S.)

Im just sharing this in case anyone wants to consider or promote live donation in any way. It’s certainly not without risks to the donor (and recipient) but in my opinion, well worth the risks to myself. I have two perfectly functioning kidneys(least I think so). Someone else doesn’t even have one. Unfortunately, organ transplantation is not always successful. There is a chance the person’s body will reject the transplanted organ. Not only is this devastating for the recipient but can also be for the live donor. To give up a crucial part of our own body to try to save/extend someone else’s life and it doesn’t work. And we can’t get that organ back either. Still, it’s worth it. We don’t know if we don’t try. My philosophy is that some things are well worth the risk of disappointment/devastation. It still won’t be for nothing.

And that person still will receive our love.

I dont believe anyone has a moral responsibility/obligation to have our own body cut into and have an organ removed! Or blood taken. It’s just a sweet, incredibly generous, act of kindness im putting out here in case it resonates with anyone in any way. Like I frequently say/write, I don’t judge those who aren’t interested in this or too scared or cant for whatever reason. Social media is a great way to bring awareness to something even if we cant or wont ever or currently participate in it our own self.

I have this dream/goal, for years now, that has to do with organ donation. I thought about it off & on for years, sometimes more seriously than others, but always sure. Recently, it has been on my mind more than ever and I am even more passionate than ever about it. It can’t be yet because I have some circumatances to change/get even better first. But in some ways, I am preparing. I hope so much that in the somewhat near future, it will be a reality.

I have given it much thought, research, and talked to people about it recently. I know it’s my calling. I am inspired and ready(just in my head for now).

One night, recently, in the dead of night I woke up with this disturbing “what if…” what if it doesnt work???

Then instantly, song lyrics popped into my head. A song sung by Ringo Starr.

When it comes to love, you gamble when you need to…you’ll maybe break your heart on one unlucky throw but then again, you’ll never know.❤❤❤

I love this song!! And sometimes, I listen to it over & over & over again. But I havent heard or thought of it much lately. So I love how it popped into my head out of nowhere. It was probably in my “unconscious mind.”

It is the most beautiful concept, really it is. Reach out in love no matter what. Then let go. Whatever happens, happens. Make the most of it and cherish whatever good there is in each day.

I want to share this message not just in relation to organ donation but anything that is our goal or something we desire. It may not work out how we intended but at least we tried! And you never know, it may just go as we hoped or even better! Even if it’s something just for us and no one else, go for it!! Taking a risk, even if it all “fails,” can inspire others to take steps to achieve some goal or dream. Keep, keep going!!! And trying & falling can strengthen us. There is no such thing as failing unless we choose to stay down.

I am so ready!! I am ready to reach out in love and then let go. Hope for the best but know it’s all worth it if the worst should occur.

My love goes out to all who are in need of any kind of transplant and their families/friends. One day, I will try to help with more than just sharing on social media. And my love goes out to all organ donors (alive & deceased) and their families/friends. Since I was a little girl, I have always had a special love for those in need of an organ, even though I don’t know them. And I always knew that I want to help. I think life is beautiful and want us all to have as much as possible. And acts of kindness are beautiful and this is a great act of kindness. There is no one not worthy of this gift, no matter what religious or political views or ethnicity or sexual orientation or gender identity, nationality, skin color, size, physical appearance, relationship status, mistakes made, financial status, homeless or not, jobless or not, education level, age….in my opinion. We are all worthy of the gift of life.

It is a beautiful gift to have excellent health and a wonderful way to “give back” or “pay it forward” or just give thanks, is to share some of that good health with others.❤❤❤

This was going to be an instagram post but I realized it’s too long so I put it here instead and added to it.

Here are some tags relating to the topic.

#actsofkindness #love #universallove #loveforall #organdonation #livedonation #donatelife #savealife #giveblood #belove #lovevibrations #organtransplant #ordinaryangels #earthangels #givehope #givelife #thankyou #hope #keepgoing #sharingiscaring #awe #life #inspiration

(I found this on the ground recently!)

Also, I thank all the doctors/nurses and others who care for everyone involved with organ donation/transplantation. I thank organ donors (living and not) and their families. Thank you, thank you!!❤

Much love & light,

Xoxo Kim