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mister4string869 karma

I am ok with the anonymity, to be honest. I cannot imagine what it is like to be a family member of a donor. There is an organization that will allow me to write them a letter, also anonymous, and if they choose to respond, then that could very well open the door for a meet-up down the line. That would be very, very difficult, but I would love that. It would be their call.

mister4string759 karma

I have no idea what to say to this except I am weeping.

Thank you so much for reaching out. I think there is a concern on the part of a lot of recipients that the donor families will somehow resent us. I know that does not make sense, but it is very real. Personally, I plan on living the best life I can, both for me and my loved ones but also especially for my donor. I think about my donor and his/her family all the time, and the amount of gratitude I feel cannot be measured.

People...if you are not an organ donor, please consider becoming one. To say that it is the greatest gift you could give someone does not even come close. People are dying because of a lack of organs, and that just should not happen.

mister4string249 karma

I dunno, man, given what I know about this surgery, I'm not quite convinced you were the donor :)

Thank you for the kind wishes. It is going great so far, so I remain cautiously optimistic :)

mister4string137 karma

I am doing pretty great, thank you! Don't get me wrong, the first month really sucked - crazy fatigue and weakness (I lost a LOT of weight) and one of the anti-rejection meds causes some pretty intense hand tremors which makes it difficult to write, hold eating utensils, or drinking glasses, but that is all temorary. But my docs say that I am well beyond the bell curve in terms of recovery; the heart is showing zero signs of rejection so far and all my blood work is coming back great. And none of my other organs are showing any damage, either, so far, and that is something I was really worried about

mister4string127 karma

Thank you! I think the biggest piece of advice I can give to either one of you is to remember who it is that you married and to show heroic doses of patience and kindness. Caretakers go through their own journey, and it is incredibly stressful: cooking, all sorts of errands, (no driving for 3 months!), and a million other things that can make a day really hard.

I am not sure what to tell you about SDI, as I was fortunate enough to have a great health plan. My BIL had to have a kidney transplant about 15 years ago and jumping all those SDI hurdles was no walk in the park.