Most people know the basic facts about kidneys: how they help clean the blood in the human body, how they maintain a steady balance of fluids, and how they help excrete toxins and waste in the form of urine. What people tend to not realize is just how important the role of kidneys is. The importance of kidneys is usually not discovered until after they fail to work.
Kidney failure occurs when the kidneys in the human body fail to function properly. This greatly affects the human body since toxins and waste accumulate in the body and can make a person very sick. Also, the human body can swell up due to excess fluids not being processed and excreted by the kidneys. When kidney failure occurs, that person is usually put on hemodialysis.
Hemodialysis is the process of cleaning the blood of a person and ridding the body of different toxins. Before hemodialysis can begin, an AV fistula must be created in a person's upper arm to serve as a vascular access point. The AV fistula consists of connecting an artery to a vein. This is performed in order to create a strong connection for the vein to grow and strengthen so that it can endure hemodialysis treatment. Once the AV fistula is given time to heal and grow, then hemodialysis can begin. Two large needles are inserted into this vascular access point: one needle directs the blood from the body into the hemodialyzer while the second needle directs clean blood back into the body. A hemodialyzer is the machine in which the blood circulates through. The blood then goes through a filter to ensure that it is clean before traveling through a different needle back into the body. This cycle is continued until all of the blood in the body is filtered and purified.
An entire hemodialysis session averages to approximately 3 hours and is often a very tiring process that leaves the patient feeling exhausted and with little energy. While hemodialysis is the current treatment to be most effective, this is not a permanent solution to kidney failure. Kidney donation is the only current permanent solution to combat kidney failure. Kidneys are one of the most sought after organs and the average wait time on the national organ transplant list is approximately 7 years. Another option of getting a kidney is having loved ones or even strangers tested to see if they are compatible with the patient to give a kidney. While some people may be lucky enough to undergo kidney donation surgery and live a normal life, many are not so fortunate and often die before they can ever get matched to get a kidney.
My older half sister is currently on dialysis and desperately needs a new kidney. I immediately signed up to get tested and have been doing all communication with an amazing woman named Tammy; she is the current kidney transplant coordinator for my sister's case. I had 6 vials of bloods taken for lab work back in December and was desperately waiting to hear the results.
One of the requirements for kidney donation is that the donor must have the same blood type as the patient. This was not an issue since my sister and I have the same blood type: O+. However, this lab testing also looks at genetic markers that are present in the blood to ensure that no reaction takes place between the donor's blood and the recipient's blood. If there is no reaction, this is a good sign because it indicates that there would be a less chance of kidney rejection.
I found out in January that I had one genetic marker, called D16, that slightly affected my sister but was not significant enough to cause any concern. I was relieved to hear this news. I told Tammy that because I was at school here in Merced, I would let her know when I returned home to resume further testing. I am from San Diego, which is approximately 7 hours away from Merced! Though it's not easy being so far from home, I knew I could make this work.
When I returned back to San Diego just a couple weeks ago, Tammy sent me an urgent email instructing me to call her ASAP. I was immediately concerned and called her to see what had happened. Unfortunately, the minor reaction between my blood and my sister's blood had increased significantly. This means that if I were to now give her my kidney, there would be a strong chance that her body would reject it. I almost wanted to cry when Tammy told me the news- everyone else that my sister had tested didn't work out for a variety of reasons, and I was basically her last hope. I felt like such a disappointment even though Tammy assured me that this often happens between half-siblings since genetic markers are derived from both the mother and the father. My sister and I scheduled a meeting with Tammy to go over different options on what we could do next. This is when she introduced the concept of the donor exchange program.
The donor exchange program is a way for people to find a kidney when a recipient's donor is not compatible. So, in the case with me and my sister, we would be entered as a pair and we would wait until another pair of people in the same situation as us match. So, my kidney would be compatible for donation to another recipient, and in turn, their donor would be compatible to give their kidney to my sister.
Before we can be entered into this program, I have to go undergo thorough testing to ensure that I am a good candidate for kidney donation. The first step is to undergo a 24-hour urine analysis to ensure that there is nothing wrong with my own kidneys. After this step, I would have to go and take a 2 hour glucose tolerance test, similar to what pregnant women undergo. This test monitors blood sugar levels to see if a person could have diabetes or even pre-diabetes.
While there are many other steps in this whole ordeal, I am currently just focusing on these 2 first. I should find out in approximately 2 weeks to see if my kidneys seem to be functioning properly before moving on to the glucose tolerance test.
This has been such an emotional and challenging journey. My decision to donate a kidney began all the way back to my freshman year of college and I am now going to be a junior this fall. I've made close to a hundred different phone calls and have spoken with many different people involved in this entire journey. This is probably the most difficult thing I have ever encountered, no exam or class would ever match up to the difficulty of this process.
Regardless of how stressful this may all be, I am thankful that I am in the position to possibly donate a kidney on behalf of my sister. Whatever the results may be, I know that my love for my sister will never cease and only continue to grow. I would absolutely die for her and I'm so lucky to have such an amazing older sister to go to for advice. I can only hope things work out the way they are meant to and that I find the strength and patience to endure whatever news may come my way.