I didn’t expect to cry when I heard the news, regarding my kidney donation process, but I cried all the way home on December 2nd. The news came from the transplant team at Medical City Healthcare in Fort Worth. We began our search for a live kidney donor and joined the kidney transplant list at Baylor Scott & White on March 7, 2022.
It was Kathryn Lozano, my living donor coordinator. “Your surgery to donate your kidney is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 16 . . . we were able to get the day you wanted . . . there is a recipient at UT Austin (I later learned it was a 59-year-old male), who will receive it and be implanted that same day.
My donation became real for the first time.
Merry Christmas UT Austin. My left kidney is a small part of me that when removed, I can live without. It’s amazing that it can become the biggest factor in someone else’s life. Not that donation is a simple or easy process. It isn’t. The rigorous evaluations to be approved, the hours to attend appointments, the surgery and an 8-week recovery process are a lot to cope with.
I had applied to be a living kidney donor and join the National Kidney Registry program. Many of you are aware that my husband, Randy, has been on dialysis for almost 3 years now and he is need of a kidney. I am not a direct match. He is type O and I type A, but I can donate my kidney to someone in need through the national kidney registry.
This will create a voucher for Randy to be moved to the top of their list. The agreement is that he will also have a kidney within a 6-month time period.
Prayer warriors – your prayers are appreciated for all parties who will be affected by this donation. Dr. Ortiz will be the transplant surgeon.
I will continue to give updates and chronicle my journey, as well as Randy’s on this Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/657730728849883
I will also give some updates on this page.
You must be approved to join, but please know that is only to offer protection from people who do not have a legitimate interest or have alternative motives for following the page.
The Back Story: Kidney Donation Process
Randy, is currently on the kidney transplant list with Baylor Scott & White Transplant Institute here in Fort Worth, Texas. He has been on peritoneal home dialysis since October of 2022 and had hemodialysis treatments starting March 7, 2022.
I will be sharing my heart as an open book. It will include our story as well as 20 things I’d like people to know about being a living kidney donor.
I tell you our story to simply ask you to share it with others to get the word out. If you are a church member, please consider asking your pastor to announce it and/or put it in a church newsletter? It only takes a few minutes, but could mean a lifetime for Randy. There are people who are interested in organ donation.
This is my truth. I believe that faith in action means God fights for us, but we also need to act. This line by C.S. Lewis just happened to come across my YouTube feed this morning.
I’d like to share one episode that happened this past spring. I think it will tell you everything you need to know about Randy Kenneth Moore.
It was 6:45 a.m. and I was rushing out the door to get to work. After getting in my car and driving to the end of our street, I realized I left my phone at home (you know how not having your phone is like not having your underwear?) I turned the car around, pulled halfway up the driveway, car running, jumped out and walked hurriedly into the house. Randy was sitting in his recliner. I brushed past him to grab my phone. I started telling him, “Of course, I left my phone again, you know me, this is so typical.” He smiled, raised his hands and did an hourglass motion. “It was worth you leaving your phone just to have you walk by me one more time.”
Not only did I feel better immediately, I thought, “It really was worth leaving my phone 😊 One compliment made my week, my month, even my whole year.
We met in October of 1978 in the hallway of Midland High School. Did God know then that one day I would be writing this message to help him find a kidney?
How it began – Kidney Donation Process
Randy played football in high school and one day he noticed blood in his urine after a football practice. He consulted a doctor and soon learned that he had IgA nephropathy, which is a rare disease that causes kidney damage when your own immune system produces antibodies in your kidneys. This then triggers harmful inflammation in your kidneys. Inflammation is the body’s natural response to injury and infection. This process lowers your kidneys’ ability to filter waste and fluid from your blood.
There is no cure for IgA nephropathy, there is no known cause for it, and it always affects both kidneys.
Who knows the reason why something in our body turns against us and silently destroys rather than gives health?
Kidney Donation Process
Today, we are finding the dialysis treatments are draining and are only meant to be a temporary make-do until you can get a kidney transplant. The dialysis does a fraction of what a viable kidney can do. The kidneys still continue to deteriorate while you are on dialysis and the longer you are on the dialysis, the worse you feel. The worse you feel, the more your body’s immune system declines, the less likely you are to be a successful transplant patient.
So, time is imperative now.
Randy has lost strength in his upper arms, his skin is paper thin, bleeds easily and he sleeps a lot. We are reaching out to simply ask you to share our story with others you know in the hope that we may be able to find a viable living donor with type O blood. Positive or negative does not matter.
I and my 2 children are type A and are unable to donate. I have applied to the paired donor program with no results so far. The problem is that an O blood donor can donate to the A blood recipient, but not vice versa, as in our situation.
I work with a young woman who has had 2 kidney transplants. She told me that she felt immediately better as soon as she received the kidney. Her husband was fortunate to be able to donate to her 5 years ago after her first kidney transplant, this after the kidney from her father-in-law failed. I am now seeing Facebook posts where the 2 of them are taking trips and hiking up mountains!
We have 2 potential donors, but they are unable to undergo the surgery immediately so we wanted to get the word out in case we might be able to find someone who can donate sooner.
Kidney Donation Process: First Steps
The very first step is to complete a short questionnaire that can quickly let someone know if they are a viable candidate for donation or not.
Name: Randy Kenneth Moore
Birthdate: August 6, 1960
Baylor Fort Worth Transplant (livingdonorfortworth.org)
20 Quick Facts: Knowledge is Power
- 1 in 750 people are born with only 1 kidney and their life expectancy is the same as a person born with 2 kidneys. The second kidney is a spare.
- A live donor kidney has twice the life span of a deceased donor kidney implant.
- We have been blessed to have 4 deceased donor calls, but the quality of the kidney, in all 4 cases, was too poor to transplant once the person was taken off of life support.
- It is illegal to pay anyone for a kidney and the donor must live within the U.S. due to International laws
- Living donors do NOT take medication after the transplant, only the recipient
- You do not have to be young to donate, you need only be healthy enough to donate. Many people in their 70s have been live donors.
- Marijuana users are able to donate kidneys
- Surgeons perform minimally invasive surgery to remove a living donor’s kidney (laparoscopic nephrectomy) for a kidney transplant, which involves less pain and a shorter recovery for the donor.
- Our insurance pays for all costs to the living donor.
- There are programs to pay additional expenses for a living donor such as housing, food, travel expenses and a post-surgery caregiver.
- A donor would need to come to Fort Worth for the surgery. The donor would need to remain in Fort Worth for 2 full weeks post-surgery in order to attend post-op doctor visits. However, 4 to 6 weeks of bed rest with a caregiver is recommended, even if the person leaves the Fort Worth area after 2 weeks to return home.
- Kidney donation in no way affects a woman’s ability to conceive.
- Living kidney donors typically have the same kidney function, life expectancy, and general health as people with 2 kidneys.
- After the kidney is removed, the remaining kidney will increase in size and take over the job of filtering blood, On average, kidney function will initially increase by 1 mL/min/1.73 m2 per year after donation, but this will plateau after about five years.
- Overall, living kidney donors typically experience a 20 to 30 percent decrease in kidney function after donation.
- Donors should 18 years old (with some exceptions)
- Have BMI (body mass index) of 35 before surgery
- Not be pregnant
- Be a nonsmoker or able to quit smoking at least six weeks before surgery
- Be in good physical and mental health
If you are reading this, you have read all the way to end. Thank you, thank you for reading all about our kidney donation process journey, and if you feel led, please help us get the word out.
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