There is a lot of scrutiny when you try to make a non directed donation. Here (in Canada) we can do it with a bunch of psychosocial screenings. I struggled to explain why I wanted to donate but basically with very minimal risk to myself I could give someone a decade or two of way better quality of life. It may seem purely altruistic but knowing that some stranger somewhere got a bit longer to live their lives is something very comforting. I did get an anonymous letter from him and it was a father of two who was able to go back ro work so his wife wouldn't carry that whole burden herself. He spoke about being able to see his kids grow up. To know I played a part in it meant a lot to me. That is my "benefit". It has in some way improved my mental health because no matter what I at least did that one good thing.

Or if not, at least a pack of miracle legumes.

I have no problem with EVs .... But ICEs aren't going anywhere we are just going to fuel them with biofuels aka natural carbon capture.

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The correct ICE fuel would be biofuels... With genetically engineered plants increase yield. We already have plants designed that would roughly replace 25% of existing US fuel consumption and make ICE engine emissions almost entirely a moot point. I get my 25% number from working back from the 50million acres currently used for corn and soy that are grown strickefly for biofuel (both are terribly inefficient compared to the possibilities)

See lipidcane and lipidshorgum. Which currently yield about 10x the oil of soy and double the ethanol per acres relative to corn from one crop.

Pretty much all gasoline vehicles can be converted to ethanol...and biodiesel is in many ways superior to petroleum diesel.

Hydrogen is one of the worst ICE fuels in everything except emissions.

Also opposed piston diesels can do 50% better than next generation ultra stringent emissions standards...so again why no traction on real solutions?

Ah you’re right, I got sidetracked from excitement. Even an EV Crown would be awesome

It would be great, but Nissan made the Skyline. Plenty of old good Toyota's. Supra, Celica, Altezza, Mr2.

Not true, they want to continue producing ICE cars and have lobbied intensively against climate change measures.

Tbf while it’s a great step in the road to commercial fusion, there needs to be MASSIVE improvements to the engineering and that’s going to take $$$ and time.

Idk what the big deal was it was just one little favor

I wonder how many people on Reddit actually understand that reference at this point.

My SO was nervous. They are more squeamish about medical stuff overall, though. They had a friend that was previously on the waitlist for a kidney for long time, so that gave them some perspective.

I did it after learning about how many people wait for years to receive something life-saving that other people have and don’t really even ever think about in their daily life. I was a blood donor and on the Be the Match registry, so I was already comfortable with the general idea of “giving up” part of me (I don’t feel this way, but that’s how many people talk about it.) When I researched paired donation and found out the potential impacts of the chain reaction, I was even more convinced it was the right thing to do.

I underwent extensive psychological screening and counseling as part of the process, but it seemed like donors that know the recipient undergo other/ possibly more to ensure they’re not feeling pressured, explicitly or implicitly, to do it.

It’s not something I bring up in conversation because I really didn’t do it for attention and I get pretty awkward with some of the extreme praise (“you’re someone’s angel”). I also don’t want to seem like I’m on a soap box or trying to guilt people by something I say. I’m more comfortable talking about it here because you’re all strangers and maybe even jerks, haha.

Here’s what I want to say when people bring it up:

I wish more people would consider it because it was pretty easy in the grand scheme of things and didn’t change my life much at all. I didn’t suffer or sacrifice much, but hopefully the recipient benefited greatly. It didn’t make me a better person. It just had the potential to make a stranger better (physically), and that’s what matters.

I appreciate that much of this thread has been about the process, not one person’s “gift.” It took me a few tries to convince myself to post, but I hoped others would be interested in reading more about organizations that handle paired donation, including the group I went through.

I think I saw that AMA but didn’t participate. I think a better AMA would be with one of the coordinators or surgeons that is involved in the process. They all meet so many people for a short period of time but treat everyone so great. (Like most others in the U.S., I’ve been conditioned to expect frustrating, impersonal healthcare).

Here are 2 quick examples:

I was in awe of how my donation coordinator handled so many different people and tasks, all with genuine care. At one point, I was a potential match for someone and had to travel to the center for advanced testing. It was winter and my connecting flight got cancelled. It was only a few hours away, so after I told her repeatedly I was okay with it, she booked me a rental car. She checked in with me throughout the drive, offered to make sure the hotel had a meal ready for me upon arrival, etc.

I travelled from out of state to donate and when one of the surgeons found out, they invited me to their house for dinner during the week I was recovering locally. It was a low-key family dinner and we didn’t talk about the surgery. I appreciated it greatly.

I’m sorry for such a lengthy response. Like I said, I rarely ever talk about it and I think this was a bit of a healthy release of thoughts I keep to myself. Thank you!

That’s my next plan. I’m pretty busy so I thought firing off a quick email over the holidays would get things rolling. Apparently not.

Thanks. I’m wasn’t planning on donating to anyone specifically but now I’m planning on donating for someone. I assumed they’d check to make sure I’m healthy so no surprises.

Note to figure out why they’re not blowing up my phone trying to get the process started.

I may have to be a little more proactive than just an email asking how I go about donating a kidney.

I'm on the transplant list waiting for a kidney - it's stories like these that give me hope!

It's mildly amusing that he's from a town called "Luck" I suppose.

That is probably the case.

I was hoping for hydrogen cars because they can be refueled quicker than recharged.

Toyota has also invested heavily in motorsport (most Japanese brands do), and EV cars will kill motorsport. For now, GR can continue to push forward with hybrid power plants in motorsport, but that will come to an end soon.

Beautiful creatures and sad the dolphin to the porpoise died off

i wanna squish that melon

RS memes out in the wild

Super easy, barely an inconvenience is TIGHT!

My uncle (moms brother) tried to donate his to my Dad. Went through a ton of test, psych stuff. One of the last tests they found cancer (I forget where, one of his organs), and whatever kind it was they said he probably wouldn’t have found till the symptoms were really bad and it would have been terrible to treat. So he couldn’t donate, but wound up being a massive blessing!

AN EV OLD SCHOOL SKYLINE WOULD BE INSANE

A ton of testing to determine if you’re a viable candidate for the person you’re donating to. The restrictions are typically pretty strict, no pre-existing issues that would affect you after the fact. The main purpose of the testing isn’t to make sure you’re a viable candidate, it’s to make sure you’ll be fine afterwards.

You’d get a complete work up on yourself, you’ll learn everything you ever wanted to know about your kidneys & blood medically. A lot of urinating into containers and people checking in on you. I learned through this process that both my kidneys have 2 renal arteries, which don’t serve any purpose. They tell you that the anatomy of your kidneys can disqualify you, basically if the surgeon doesn’t feel comfortable, they won’t operate.

My recipients mother was going to donate (58), completely compatible, but they didn’t move forward because there was a vein wrapped around the ureter. Like she’s fine but the surgeon didn’t feel comfortable.

You’ll meet with the following:

A kidney doctor (can’t remember the official name off the top of my head, sorry kidney doctors reading this thread!)

A psychologist(PTSD and post donation depression are REAL and the psychologist makes sure you’re fine mentally)

A social worker (to make sure you’d thought it through, and that you have a recovery plan. You need someone to take care of you while recovering since you can’t drive or lift anything heavier than 4lb. for a week at least. The recovery plan is key, have an idea of who’s gonna take care of you before you go in)

A dietician (makes sure you’re eating healthy and that your diet is maintainable and not going to hurt you. They require that you have a BMI below 30. I had a BMI of 32 the first time around and they conditionally approved me to move forward if I lost weight before the surgery, which I did)

A nurse coordinator (the main correspondent you’ll be talking to. This person is typically the one scheduling everything with you and telling you what’s next. My nurse coordinator was amazing, she was so sweet & made the whole process seamless).

As far as the surgery, I’ve been told by a few women that the incision/scarring is very similar to a C-section with an exception: there’s also 3 incisions made on your stomach where a probe is used to cut the kidney loose. They also pump your torso full of CO2 and leave it in there when they’re done, you’ll need to sleep on your back for a while or risk some terrible pain in your shoulder if laying on your side.

Unfortunately, EV conversion of a chassis designed for a gas tank and ICE engine usually results in a vastly inferior experience to a car designed to be EV from the ground up.

Mazda did this same shit, seems to be a Japanese thing. They dragged their feet on EVs for years until many countries made it clear the death of ICE cars was inevitable. After that, they pushed out the MX-30, an ICE-chassis conversion and colossal piece of shit that's at least 10 years behind the rest of the EV market. 100 mile range in a 2022 SUV. Properly pathetic.