donor question

[bleija]

My brother has offered to donate a kidney to me. i was working with the transplant center in orlando, and they told me that he was not eligable because of his asthma. However, when I started the work-up at Shands, the transplant surgeon told me that his asthma did not matter he could donate. His blood type is O neg, and I'm O pos. He is 11 months older than me. My nurse acts as if hes a perfect match. I do not want to get my hopes up, but I am curious though, what chances do I have. I know with siblings its 25% possibility of being a 6 of 6 match, but I also know that it doesnt have to be all 6. I just want to know what kind of chances do I have. I am done with all the testing for transplant, they just want me to have 3000 in an account set aside, so they know that i will be able to cover the drugs the first year. That is the only thing holding me back. I have done tons of fundraising, and have accumulated 1162 of that 3000. My husband took out a flexible spending account for 1000. so i only need another 838 before they will start any kind of work up for him. I am 21 and I do not have any other health issues other than the kidney failure, so they say Im the perfect candidate. i would prefer a living donor and to be able to schedule the surgery and everything on my terms, and the neph and nurse act liek it could be this summer, but i dnt want to get my hopes up...

[Chris]

1. Save more than $3000 for meds a year, it will be more than that. Most of that can be used in 1 month depending on dosage, other drugs prescribed, or over the counter meds.
 
2. From what I have read through the last 4 or 5 years here, it is possible to have a transplant by summer. Most recently KarenWA story comes to mind with her living donor.
 
Just try to be balanced with optimism and cautiousness to not worry as much if something arises and plans need to be rescheduled. Just tr to stay in the loop of things with the transplant clinic.

[KarenInWA]

My donor, Lynn, contacted me back in May about wanting to donate her kidney to me. She went through all the testing, which was finally complete in the 2nd half of October (that was the transplant clinic's fault, they fell through on  heart stress test for her).  We then scheduled our surgery to be ASAP, which ended up being Nov 23rd. We wanted the 16th, but that was already taken. I am now 1 month post-op and doing great!

As for the meds, Medicare should help pay for your anti-rejection meds. Are you on Medicare? Do you or your husband have prescription coverage? My co-pays range from $4 to $65, and that $65 isn't even for an anti-rejection med, it's for clotrimazole! (to help prevent thrush).  The good news is, a lot of these drugs you're only on for 3 to 6 months. Valcyte, which is horribly expensive, is one of them. That's an anti-viral med. Clotrimazole I believe I'm on for only 6 months, I need to clarify that at my next clinic visit. Other meds I am on are ranitidine (for heartburn) which is cheap, generic Bactrim (also cheap), prednisone (anti-rejection, and insanely cheap), a pre-natal vitamin (Rx, not OTC), and 81mg of aspirin (OTC, and cheap if you buy generic). I am not currently on Tums or calcitriol. I was, but my #'s for those are high, so they took me off of them. I am also off any BP meds. I understand that none of this is permanent, it all depends on my labs, and BP readings. But, I am okay with that, because I already have these meds in my possession, should I need to use them again.

I am also very lucky because I have a good union job with excellent benefits.  I use Medicare as secondary. My co-pays are manageable.  My current union contract lasts until 2013, so things may change after that. I will cross that bridge when I get there.

KarenInWA

[kellyt]

It's very possible that asthma could be a problem at one clinic/hospital and not another.  I found they have different levels of standards.  The clinic/hospital I went through was very strict.  I had both my brothers test for me and although they were both a match, neither was a 6/6.  They were both 3/3/, however, my oldest brother's test came back stating some antigens were "missing", so it's possible he was more than a 3/3.  My husband was a 4/6.  All three of them were decllined for one reason or another.   My sis-in-law, who actually donated to me, was a 3/3.  I'm just over 3 years post transplant.

[bleija]

thats some awesome insight. As of right now, I only have Medicare. I had insurance through my job, but there was 3 months where i was on probation<1st 90 days> after my 18th birthday when i had no insurance. I had Medicaid growing up. So the compny's insurance decided that i became sick in that 3 month span, and called it preexisting and refused to cover anything that had to do with it, so i dropped them. Did not see any reason to pay for something that was doing absolutely nothing for me.