Where do paired donations take place?

[Deanne]

My siblings can't donate to me, but my neph said a paired donation is a possibility if my sister is interested in being a donor. I live in Oregon, my sister is in Minnesota. Does anyone know where a paired donation would likely take place? Would the pairing be a potentially nationwide thing where we could end up anywhere in the country, depending on the donors, or would donors only be looked at in MN and/or OR?

[Jelena]

Hi Deanne,
your sister first need to enroll in a paired donation program that is available at your hospital or a hospital nearby that has paired donation program. Then they run a match every month or two months within the network that your hospital has signed up with. That network will include hospitals that are enrolled in the same program. I am enrolled with the program that is offered by my husband's hospital. Then, if the match shows up, donors travel wherever recipients are. We had an opportunity a year ago, and I was to go to Pittsburgh to donate there, and the other donor was to come here. It didn't happen in the end, but that is how it works. I am trying now to get myself listed with other paired donation programs so we can increase our chances. I am an A, and my husband is an O. They say it is difficult to find a matching couple with this particular combination.
Good luck! I'll be happy to answer any questions. 

[Riki]

My mom is thinking about signing up with the paired donor exchange program.  Here, it's a national program that must be ratified by all provinces with a transplant centre.  Nova Scotia, where my transplant centre is, ratified the program through the winter, I"m told, and members of our board have actually been a part of it

A good friend of mine, who also happens to be my brother's exgirlfriend, offered me a kidney last week.  We happen to be the same blood type, which I think is kind of cool.  We told her to talk to her parents about it, and if she was still interested to let us know.

[okarol]

What hospital are you with Deanne? I googled "paired donation and "Oregon."
Here's a story about paired donation and Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center in Portland. http://topics.oregonlive.com/tag/alliance%20for%20paired%20donation/index.html - arranged through the Alliance for Paired Donation http://www.paireddonation.org/ which has many states in their pool of donors/recipients. Your transplant team should get you and your sister enrolled so labs can be run to see if there is a potential match/swap.

[MooseMom]

A good friend of mine, who also happens to be my brother's exgirlfriend, offered me a kidney last week.  We happen to be the same blood type, which I think is kind of cool.  We told her to talk to her parents about it, and if she was still interested to let us know.

Oh, wow!  I didn't know this!  I'm sorry if I missed a post about this because this is hopeful news!  I really hope she comes through for you!

[Riki]

A good friend of mine, who also happens to be my brother's exgirlfriend, offered me a kidney last week.  We happen to be the same blood type, which I think is kind of cool.  We told her to talk to her parents about it, and if she was still interested to let us know.

Oh, wow!  I didn't know this!  I'm sorry if I missed a post about this because this is hopeful news!  I really hope she comes through for you!

No, I haven't really talked about it. I'm a little afraid to, in case I jinx it.  I told my brother about it, he told me not to hold my breath.  I jokingly said to him, "well, I quit holding my breath, waiting for you to offer," and he said, "good, I wasn't going to."  When I asked him why, he gave me some cock and bull story about them not being able to get to his kidneys cuz they're under ribs.  I just let it go.  I didn't think there was much point in arguing with him.

Her parents may talk her out of it, cuz she's got 4 kids to worry about, although, if anything ever happened to her, whether she gave me a kidney or not, between her parents and mine, her kids would want for nothing, even though they're not biologically related to us.

[Deanne]

I think my neph said I'd be at Good Sam. I haven't started the eval process yet. I have to re-test next week and if my creatinine is still above 3 (it tested at 3.4 two weeks ago), my neph will refer me to start the transplant evaluation. I think it's likely I'll be referred. I've been feeling "off" for a while now. For now, I'm just looking for information to tell my family. They don't know yet that I'm headed for the transplant process. When I tell them, I'd like to have as much information about it as possible. I hate drama. I'm going to hate telling them, so the more confident I am / the more knowledge I have, the easier it'll be.

Edited to add: Thanks for the link Okarol! I'm off to check it out...

And Riki! I hope your potential donor comes through for you.  to your brother!