Live Kidney Donation – Reasons To Be Cheerful About The Surgery

Nobody likes going in to hospital (or at least no one I know!)  And even fewer people like to go into surgery.  But if you are considering becoming a kidney donor there are reasons to be optimistic about this particular surgery. 

Most people, I guess, have at least one medical horror story, even if it is a nurse who can't take blood without giving you a four inch bruise, or can’t give you a smear test because they can't find your cervix.

Not a week goes past without some horror story about a cock up in an NHS hospital appearing in the paper.  This can really damage your confidence in the run up to a scheduled kidney transplant, or I guess any procedure (you see I'm using medical lingo now, either that or I watch "ER" too much.)  But the advantages of this operation are many:

1. It is scheduled, it's not an emergency when the doctors are trying to figure out what went wrong, so everything is planned. 
2. As the donor you will be in pretty good health to start with, so the chances of complications are less than if you were actually sick.
3. Apparently you're supposed to feel positive psychological effects because you're doing such a good thing.  (In my experience this lasts until the pain kicks in, and then resurfaces when you get your life back.)
4. The type of doctors who do this operation have got a lot of experience, and there are two surgeons in the room - one doing the op, one watching.
5. It's a fascinating operation, you take a kidney out, then you put it in someone else and it starts working.  If you are in a teaching hospital everyone will be watching.  You will be surprised when the physio/nurse/transplant co-ordinator/nurse tells you that they saw your operation, but the truth is they're lining up - you and the kidney recipient are quite frankly the best show in town (somehow my aunt managed to get in there too!)  Obviously this means they will probably see your arse, but the upside is that with half the hospital watching, there is no way they are going to leave any surgical instruments inside.  Also, my scar is the straightest I have ever seen (everyone always compliments me on it.)  You and the recipient are the surgeon's chance to shine - they will not mess up.
6. They're taking out a major organ, it is a major operation, and when you come out you will be on heavy pain medication.  Therefore they will be monitoring your vital signs (blood pressure, heart rate, urine output, temperature) round the clock until you come off the epidural or the PCA (Patient Control Analgesia), and making you wiggle your toes.
7. Oh yes, everyone loves you.  When you go through all the tests, the nurses will be amazed that you are voluntarily going through this.  (They even let me use their loos - twice.)  They will tell you how brave you are, how they don't think they could do it, and when you wake up from surgery everyone will be all smiles.  Unfortunately this changes for some of them once you start carping for drugs afterwards, but most of the nurses will still love you.