I was thinking up on my bucket list when I remembered my organ/blood donor dream.
One I was reading the paper when a particular request among its pages caught my eye. A fifty five year old mother of five was requesting for a kidney from a benefactor. The reason why this caught my attention was because she had asked for a kidney of the same blood type as mine. I immediately went into the "I think I should give my kidney" mode. Called Darling on the spot and told him of what I intended to do. Here's how the conversation went.
Me: Darling, there was an ad in the paper asking for a kidney, shall I donate? It's the same blood type as mine.
Darling: kidney? You want to give one of your kidneys? Won't there be any side effects?
Me: No I don't think so. I have two kidneys and this woman has none so I don't see why I shouldn't give, don't you think?
Darling: mmmmmm... yeaaahhh... I guess sooo.. If you really want to...
End of conversation. Happy that Darling was on my side I texted my Doctor Cousin. It was a simple text. There was nothing to get worked up about. It simply said that I was think of donating one of kidneys and asked what she thought of it, you know from a purely medical point of view.
The next moment, I get a hurried call.
"AKKKKKAAA!!! Are you nuts! You can't give away one of your kidneys. You haven't even had a child yet. wait till after you do, if you really want to. And do you really really want to live on medicine forever?, It could lead to complications".
I said "OK, point taken. Won't donate a kidney just yet.".
Maybe I gave up too easy. I don't know.
It's just that I've always wanted to donate blood, but have never been able due to constant presence of asthma medicine in my bloodstream. I once almost lied to the blood bank that I was not under any medication so that I could give blood, but at the last moment the mortification of having to lie hit me and I told the good doctor who was there "I'm on an inhaler". That was the end of that dream.
Awwww... I know what it's like, wanting to be altruistic and not being able to. My uncle wanted to donate a kidney and had all but promised it when he called his doctor sis and she freaked out, pointing out that his kids were small, one of them *had* a kidney problem, and what if one of the kids needed a kidney in the future!
ReplyDeleteNot sure about not being able to donate blood if you're on an inhaler. Is it a steroid inhaler, or just something like ventolin?
Anyway... I'm sure you'll get your chance at some point...
Hey Angel, thank you so much for the encouragement! You're saying that I can donate blood even though I'm on an inhale? Wow that would be great! I'm allergic to Ventolin aney. I use Seretide evohaler. Is that a steroid inhaler? Sorry to ask so many questions. :D
Deleteaaahahaha :D Sorry I find it hilarious that Ups crushed your dreams. I heard the story from her :D
ReplyDeleteYeah. She went on a total doc mode on me!! :D
Deletei just read this and realized i was the '' hurried call ". sorry akki :P but since now you have a baby and if you're not planing to have more,maybe we can reconsider? after professional-consultant level advice,of course :D (or wit till you have another 4 or 5 kids :D )
Deleteit'd be really wonderful if you could do something like that,ne :)
Last year or so, my aunt promised one of her kidneys to her brother-in-law and then told Ammi about it and she went all doc mode on her too. Thus, my aunt ended up backing out.
ReplyDeleteAdmire your intentions but sadly donating a kidney isn't easy as it seems. (This is after hearing the gory details of what could go wrong or/and the side effects etc.)
I should tell Ammi about what you were planning to do. You'd be in for another earful for sure :P
it's amazing you think that, and I've played around with the idea many times in my head.
ReplyDeletebut see, i dunno. i think we also owe it to our families to be in the utmost standard of health, just to be able to take care of them if in need. At that point. sigh. It's a really tough call.
Awww. :D I once saw the eye donation ad and wanted to donate my eyes. The thought of body parts (or blood) being removed while I'm alive scares me to death, though. :(
ReplyDelete