Step 1: Medical Evaluation

On July 6th, 2017 my dad was approved for a kidney transplant. It's been a long awaited approval and that's his story to share but when we learned that he would eventually need a kidney transplant I knew I would be his match. I've always known. I had conversations with my mom about it but mostly in the sense of how logistically speaking, it made the most sense for me to be his donor. The surgery would take place in Salt Lake City, Utah and I am currently living here (my parents and two of my siblings live in Boise, Idaho). I am young, healthy, and active and haven't been to the doctor for anything major in my life. I am single and don't have little ones to worry about, while I am still recovering. My job is amazing and I knew they would work with me and make the transition seamless. So on July 6th, as soon as we found out I started the l.e.n.g.t.h.y. process of being evaluated to be a potential donor.

The first step is to fill out a medical questionnaire online with the hospital that you want to donor with. If you are donating to a stranger, then you can search hospitals and programs in your area that do kidney donations. If you are wanting to see if you are a match for a donor that you know, you would go to the hospital they are working with and fill it out there.

For us, we are having the transplant done at The University of Utah hospital so I went to uofulivingdonor.org. You will then take an online questionnaire that takes about 15 minutes to complete. This is to eliminate those who would not qualify based off of previous illnesses, surgeries, disorders, etc. If you have had kidney stones within the last 10 years, I believe you do not qualify, things like that. This is a medical history questionnaire and they dive into it all. If you mark "yes" to certain questions the questionnaire will let you know that you do not qualify. Once that is complete you will be contacted by a Donor Coordinator within 7 to 10 business days.

Seven days later I got a phone call from my Donor Coordinator who goes over my questionnaire with me again. This is the start of me learning patience. We went over every.single.question.again. Once that was complete she let me know that a Nurse would be in contact with me within 7 days to go over it with me again!! That next week, sure enough, a nurse called me and we went over it again. She then let me know what will happen from here and what testing I would need to complete with the "First Round".