Spare a kidney?

I hope all your tests give you the green light, and bless your family if they donate. They should, of course.

I have a sister who said "no" because she has a daughter who is diabetic and she wanted to keep that option for her daughter. I could understand that.

Then, I have a younger brother who couldnt consider it until after baseball season (he had season tickets to the yankees) and then after football season (he had season tickets to Army) and after his son's Bar Mitzvah a few months after that.

Well, before before baseball season was over I was blessed with my transplant. He will have to make peace with God, and I wont be saying a word.

It's more than just problems with other organs that prevent being placed on the transplant list. It's an overall health evaluation. My wife was on the transplant list for awhile but was removed because of other health issues. Hopefully, it won't be too long before she gets back on the list.

MoneyLA, although I sense some hard feelings towards your brother I cannot fault him for his indecisiveness. True he may have waited until his son's bar mitzvah, or the Superbowl, or the Australian Open, or the NBA championships, or the Olympics, or until God knows when but fortunately things turned out for the best. I won't take too strong a stance about this issue because knowing my luck God will humble me and put me in a similar predicament whether I would need to be a recipient or a donor sometime later in life. I have a cousin who donated one of his kidney's to his own sister, unfortunately though she died after receiving the kidney. Still, I have the highest admiration towards my cousin for his tremendous generousity towards his sister. I was curious MoneyLA given the outcome of your gift of life in that in the end you were able to receive a donor kidney but were you able to forgive your brother for his reluctance to donate one of his kidneys? As for me donating a live kidney would probably be the most difficult decision in my life but if it were for a love one I would probably lean towards doing it.

Actually, I was blessed by his fear of surgery. And that's what it was. He was scared sh**tless and has this horrible fear of dying early (he was 50 at the time).

I was blessed because had I gotten his kidney, or a kidney from my son (yes slapinfunk also volunteered) or a kidney from my brother in law (who was being tested) or gotten a kidney thought the "paired" program at Johns Hopkins (we were doing the paperwork), I would not have also gotten a pancreas transplant.

I in fact had two transplants that day -- a kidney and a pancreas -- from the cadaver donor. For some 32 years I was an insulin dependent diabetic but no longer. I now eat ice cream and cake and cookies and I put on 28 pounds making up for what I missed over three decades.

My brother? He's still a jerk. And still scared of dying early, even though he's "never been sick a day in his life," as they say.

By the way, the cadaver donor also provided another kidney for transplant, the liver was divided in half to help two people and the lungs were harvested for two lung transplants. The heart was damaged in the car accident and could not be used. I am sure the eyes were harvested as well but I was not told anything about it.

By the way, two days after my K/P transplants, I had a heart procedure to cure an electrical problem with my heart beat, and a couple of months later had my cataracts repaired.

Today, when you add up the age of all of my parts, including the mechanical parts, my "blended age" is 29. That's a couple of years younger than Slapinfunk.

MoneyLA you're truely a blessed man.