Here’s a little backstory of our journey, in 2011 my mother was diagnosed with Non-Cirrhotic portal hypertension.
They performed a spinal renal shunt which eventually went bad in 2017 and then she turned cirrhotic and was told at that time there was nothing they could do for her.
After years of fighting to qualify for a donor, she was told they could add her to the list in 2023.
I instantly said that I would do it (it’s my mom, there was no second guessing). I was told that having a live donor is better for the recipient.
At first she wasn’t comfortable with the idea because she didn’t want something to go wrong, I have children of my own.
I had to remind her god was on my side and he wouldn’t let anything go wrong. Plus, I’m an adult and I could just do it without her knowing; we’re both very stubborn individuals.
I started the process and passed each test but as with some things we had a hiccup, I had to lose weight to fully qualify.
I started weight loss medication and even went as far as seeing a bariatric doctor, the process of trying to lose weight was not fast but I knew if I wanted to help my mom I had no other option.
As I was trying to lose weight the hospital kept going back and forth with their decision if she qualified or not given her extensive medical background, the weight finally started coming off and we wanted to get a second opinion on if she qualified or not, that’s when we switched to a different hospital and donation team.
The people/ team at Henry Ford Detroit made us feel heard, valued and reassured us that yes, she qualified!!!
I went through the whole evaluation process with them and they finally gave me a projected date for surgery.
I asked them to keep it a secret so I could give her the date at my upcoming wedding as my gift to her, because mom’s don’t really have something special like dad’s do.
Our date of surgery was October 22nd, so many emotions overcome you, I couldn’t even explain them all if someone asked.
Fast forward to November 23, one month post op, her body never tried reject my donation, which in itself is a miracle.
We both had some complications, I developed a large clot by my donated ( right lobe) and was bleeding significantly so I had to go back under the following day to clean out the clot and stop the bleeding. I ended up with two blood transfusions and infiltrated.
My mothers kidneys wouldn’t start back up and she had to start dialysis, her port ended up infected and she went sepsis and had staph infection.
I share this part not to scare anyone but to be completely transparent that things do happen.
We are both home and doing well!!! still healing of course but better than what we were doing.
Living organ donation is definitely a journey for both the recipient and the donor; if I had to do it all over again there would be no questions asked, just actions.
It’s one of the greatest gifts I could ever give.
Thank you for letting me share our story.