My name is Angie and I am proud to be a living kidney donor!
I have been blessed with great health and a drive to take care of my body through staying physically active and eating right. I love to work out and walk/run every day, it has been a part of my day for 25+ years. I have ran several half marathons over the years but currently giving my knees a rest and just doing run/walk intervals for a while. And, I live in Texas! So the summers are pretty brutal for running!
My kidney donation story began about 10 years ago when one of my very closest friends told us that one day she was going to have to get a kidney transplant. At that very moment that was placed on my heart. My immediate response was “I am going to give you one of mine!”. Of course, her immediate response (and ongoing response for years) was “no you are not! There are plenty of kidneys out there from crazy people doing crazy things!”.
After about 4 years after that she was finally to the point that she had to go on dialysis. And I was sticking to my commitment…..I was going to give her a kidney! And she was still in the wait and see frame of mind for several years as she ran her daily dialysis from home.
In about 2019 it became clear that she was soon to be added to the kidney transplant list. As she got on that list and waited patiently for a donor to pop up it became clear that the next step was necessary. I stood back as her family members/children processed this and had the opportunity to be a donor. It became clear that none of them, for various reasons, were going to be able to be a donor for her.
Around the middle of 2019 she and I were tested to see if I was a match for her. Unfortunately we were not a match. So again, I stepped back, thinking maybe I had misread the message on my heart and I was not the one to be a donor.
We all waited patiently again until late 2020 when still a matching donor had not been found through the general national registry. In September of 2020 I made the steps to be a paired donor. This meant they would find a recipient for my kidney and a donor for my friend all around the same time. And again, we waited patiently….actually maybe running low on patience at this point!! And of course everything was so slow and uneasy at this point with Covid raging everywhere. So we waited. And again, I decided I had misread this all and I was not being called to be a donor.
In January 2022 the donor coordinator made me aware of another option, I could be an altruistic donor through the voucher program. This would mean that I would donate my kidney to an unknown donor and in doing this it would move my friend to the very top of the transplant registry list. I had to then pray about this and put some thought into that option.
In February 2022 I consented to be an altruistic donor on behalf of my friend. By late February I had received the call that they had a recipient for my kidney. I was able to give my friend the very best birthday gift ever, her birthday is February 23, I gave her the news that I would be donating my kidney for her on March 10!
I have never looked back! The surgery and recovery was just like any regular surgery/recovery would be. Was it a walk in the park…..at times no, but so worth it! I was back to walking outside within the week, a little slower and not so long, but walking. I was back to work half days about a week and half after surgery (I do have a desk job!), and back full time 2 weeks post surgery. I had resumed full activity over the course of the next two months.
My friend received her kidney just two months after my donation. The program works!!! I still have not received the information on the recipient of my kidney. And that is okay. I pray that he is doing well and thriving in life!
Throughout the process as I questioned my calling to be a donor I know that that was all just another lesson of waiting on God’s perfect timing. As with anything else, when you give to others, you are the one that receives the blessing in the giving. I lost my mother that same October, so she was alive to love on me through the process and to see my friend get her kidney, what a gift!
I would encourage anyone who has ever felt the nudge to be donor to step forward, it is an amazing gift that is so widespread that it never stops!
And I WILL do another half marathon!! I am not stopping until I have a Disney half medal to hang on that wall!!!
