strubes

Hey, thanks for doing this! My SO will need a kidney transplant in the next 5 years or so, so this is incredibly interesting to me.

I'll be unable to donate my kidney to him due to incompatible blood types (although pheresis is an option), plus mine are just too physically small for him. We'll go through the testing process together to check on the antigen match level which will most likely be low, but my guess is it will end up being a paired donation process.

Can you talk about the testing process you had to go through? My understanding is that it's a fairly in-depth process, to say the least. From the perspective of the person who donated, can you talk a little bit about your experiences? That may be too general, but as someone who will most likely go through this process in a couple of years, I'm just curious about it from the donor's perspective.

He's about 5 years away from his, but we're fully aware of paired donations and chains, which is what will most likely occur when he's ready for the transplant. I'm unable to donate to him directly due to blood type, and if I can help someone else out in the process I'm absolutely all in. We have some top notch hospitals within his network, and they all have the paired system set up. More people need to know about this process.

EDIT: He will be the last in his family line to go through this process (genetic disease that originated with his Dad.) All 3 of him and his siblings, plus his father, have gone, will go through, or are going through the transplant process again, so we're very familiar with it.

Yup.

No problem - thanks for taking the time to answer!