And all it cost you was a kidney!

I happened across your comment in the kidney thread and thought, "Well, how fucking cool is that?!" Especially considering how active you are.

My late uncle received a kidney from his brother (also at Mayo, and his brother also received every opportunity to decline from the doctor and my aunt). They were the first intentional kidney transplant in the US where everything matched except blood type. My uncle had also set records for the longest living on dialysis at the time. Unfortunately, my late uncle's lupus wrecked the donated kidney, too. His brother is still doing well, thankfully.

I'm so very glad that you and the person you donated to are doing well.

Oh, also congratulations on the sidebar!

*goes off to metafilter to check out small_ruminant's Kidney Post*

*hastily follows hadjiboy*

Gosh, good for you s_r! and very fortunate your mom was there to help you through it. The Mayo clinic sounds like a bunch of snoots that needs a review of the Hippocratic oath.

And YAY on the sidebar!

I LOL'd at Miss Lynnster

I'm sure my mom took care of me in ways I don't remember at all, since I was out of it for a day or two. Or three. Who knows how many days.

But the part I REMEMBER was Mom in dealing with the Episcopal lady they sent in because I had checked off "Episcopal" on the intake questionnaire.

If she was typical, I can safely say that Minnesota Episcopalians are quite dissimilar from west coast, hippie, social-justice Episcopalians. She was a very sweet, very alien creature wearing a twinset and pearls and her hair was coifed- there is no other word to describe it. Because Mom was there I was able to say thank you for coming, but my spiritual needs were covered- I'd brought my own Episcopal priest. It was funny.

And the Mayo really did suck, though we all got out alive, so that's something. I realized when writing that answer, though, that all of my misery had to do with the Mayo's treatment of me, and none with the actual surgery or recovery or the guy I donated to or anything like that.