Size Doesn't Matter. Just Act Your Age

Because I am pre-transplant, I was on the Transplant Floor when I was in University Hospital in Indy getting rid of the Alien Baby. One day I was so happy to meet Dr. Goggins, head of the Kidney Transplant Team.  (He may have been referred to as Dr. Surgeon in the Alien Baby post.)

He said, "You are a lucky woman!  You will be able to receive a kidney a lot of other people will not be able to."

"WHAT?"

Dr. G told me that because I am a small person, I can receive a small, medium or large kidney.  A small kidney can do the work I need.

If I were a large person, I would need a large kidney.  A small one could not do the work a large person needs. So I can have a great big man kidney or a small woman kidney. In my case, size doesn't matter. Lucky!

I am seventy.  The average life expectancy for a female in the USA is about seventy-nine.    

A living donor kidney functions, on average, twelve to twenty years. The lower the number of functioning years basically equals an older donor. I do not need or want a kidney from a young person that will last for decades. Do the math.

The bottom line is, an older healthy person can absolutely donate their small, medium or large kidney.

Of course the selection process is a bit more complicated,  I just don't want anyone to think that just because they are a little long in the tooth (horse talk), they are automatically eliminated as a donor.

For more information about giving the Gift of Life, contact my exceptional team at IU Health Transplant Center at University Hospital in Indianapolis:  800 382 4602 or 317 944 4370  or online at www.iuhealth.org/transplant.  Please mention my name, Mary Ann Hope.

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Thanks!
Mary Ann