Are you a donor?

I am also on the marrow donor list, but have never been matched with anyone.

I donate platelets frequently too.

These are things that all the money and technology cannot replace when they are desparately needed.

Wildkow I agree that an opt-out plan would make more organs available but until then doctors need to remember to bring it up with next of kin.

I have discussed this several times with my family members and they are well aware that they are to approach the medical staff in the event that something happens to me, and make my wishes to donate any usable organs known.

 

I was a donor but had to take myself off the list when I decided to donate my body to science after I die. They need all of me to train a new crew of future doctors!!!

 

Wildkow, I'd love to poke fun at you, but I'm at a loss of how to do it with this subject.

I'm on the donor list, as well as the marrow donor list, and I give blood as often as allowed. It's an easy thing to do, and everyone able should do so.

Tom

 

I'm doing a champion job of buggering my body up while I'm alive but when I die anyone is welcome to the bits I haven't damaged beyond use. I wont be needing any of it again. Once your dead your gone anyway.

I would rather if there were 2 people suited for transplant of my organs and one was using drugs and the other wasn't that my organs went to the one who wasn't. That even applies to smoking tobacco or drinking alcohol. A non smoker has a better chance of recovery than a smoker due to better blood flow.
I couldn't see the point in putting a healthy liver into a non reformed alcoholic if there was a non drinker waiting for the same liver.

 

I donate blood regularly, and I'm also signed up for organ donation. I made sure to underline the words 'after my death' on the back of the donor card. I don't want to wake up missing any more parts.

Having read the link from the first post, I'm curious about one of the stated reasons for refusing pot smokers. Not that whatever organs available shouldn't go to the best candidates, but aspergillosis can also be contracted through contact with soil and composted materials. Are transplant patients prohibited from gardening?

 

Hi Wildkow... fellow transplantee here (kidney, September 2004)

I have a flip-side story to this... a friend of mine's brother had been sick with end stage liver disease for a long time. His liver failure was due to alcohol abuse, drug abuse (pretty much anything he could get his hands on), eventually contracting Hepatitis C, cirrhosis, and on it went. The addictions had gone on for many years.. I think he was in his 50's and he had begun probably in his 20's, maybe earlier with alcohol and marijuana.

Anyway, he did get on the transplant list. And while in the hospital knocking on death's door, a liver became available. I'm told he went from being ghost gray before the operation to pink and healthy looking almost immediately.

Anyway, unlike me who seized the chance at a 2nd life (btw, my kidney failure was due to autoimmune disease), he was given pain killers to help him through the post-transplant pain, which he was to wean off over the course of two weeks. Unfortunately, he quickly figured out that he just had to tell the docs that he was still in pain to get refills. When he went home he started smoking... then drinking.... all in hiding. It wasn't long before he was back to his old habits, and within a few months he was in the hospital again. Fixed him up and sent him home, they did, but no change to his habits.

Within 6 months, his hepatitis C was active again, and before the 1st year post-transplant was up, he was back in the hospital... this time for the last time. Even a 2nd chance at life given right at Death's Door wasn't enough to scare him straight and kick the addictions.

Anyway, in his case, giving him the liver was a waste IMO. I don't think he was actively using drugs/alcohol while on death's door because he was too sick, but the painkillers probably triggered something in his addiction profile, and he didn't have the motivation or desire to seek out help, probably thinking that the doctors would just fix him up again. (BTW, once post-transplant, if the organ fails, you get a much higher ranking on the transplant list.. he knew this).

I'm not suggesting marijuana should be in the same classification as IV drugs, narcotics, etc., but I can understand the point about denying an organ to an addict.

 

Ask him if he means a donor at the sperm bank. :tape2:

 

Do sperm banks have night depositories?

Tom

 

I've been on the donor list since i was 16, and i always will be Then there's the Red Cross... I'm feeling particularly crappy today because i had to call in and reschedule my appointment there from tomorrow to next week. Turns out i'm going to be on the other side of town until 5, then have a managers meeting for my softball team at 6, so no time to get to my appointment.

Ahh well, i guess 66 days between donations instead of the minimum of 60 isn't too bad

 

I've had the pink donor dot since I've had my license. Give blood every 2 months. Not on the marrow donor list though.