Recovery time for Kidney Donation???????

[Mkrop]

A friend of mine (S) is donating a kidney to her dad in November. S has four kids. K and I sent out an email just to the 4 grades her kids are in and have received an overwhleming response for people wanting to cook meals for them. K made her list for a month out. We have more people than we need and a lot of people I am sure havent even gotten the email yet since they may not be home yet.

How long does the recovery take? Should we go further than a month of meals? Any other suggestions for ways to help out? I told K to take us out of the list, so that others can help and then we can be fillers if something should come up and we can do other things for her.

Many of us have offered to take the kids at various times, her brothers are taking time off to help her.

We are in between sports, so I cant take over the carpool like we normally share.

I told S to make a list of things I can do for her. She told me I could go pick up Rockband for her when the preorder comes in not what I had in mind but I certainly can handle that and if that eases her mind then I will get it for her. S even does her grocery shopping online, so she has that covered.

Any ideas?????

 

[PlainJane]

The initials totally lost me.

 

[daisax]

My friend donated her kidney to her brother. I think I saw her within a month or so -- can't recall how long she was out of work, but I imagine a month or two worth of helping out with the kids will be needed (my friend's kids were old enough to care for HER).

I wouldn't plan out more than a month in advance -- you'll know better 3-4 weeks into it what the later needs will be, and too much food in the house can be as stressful as too little!

I imagine the biggest help would be keeping the kids busy so she can rest.

 

[emma'smom]

My friend donated her kidney to her own DH last fall. I would say that her recovery took about 3 weeks (although I'm sure she would say she wasn't 100% yet at that time). However, she was out and about in stores and such after about 2-3 weeks. She likened the incision to a C-Section, but said the recovery was a bit harder (for one thing, she was older than she was when she had a c-section) and there was also the worry/stress of caring for her husband.

Anyway, one thing to note, we weren't able bring her ANY food/meals. I think this was really more to do with her DH's recovery (low immunity as a result of receiving the transplanted kidney)...but I would just double check with your friend that she can accept the meals safely.

Other things my friend asked for (and this was pulling teeth because she didn't want much help):

(1)Cards and little "keep them busy" activities for her kids. I think she was concerned that much time would be dedicated to recovering and thus, less time for her children.

(2)She made a list of "People to call in a pinch....to run an errand, etc" We all gladly agreed to be on that list!

(3) It was holiday time, so we offered to help get their decorations ready (ie. put up the tree). Gosh darnit if they didn't get it done before they went off to surgery...but we offered!

(4)Phone call/e-mail updates on their behalf--- To avoid having everyone call or feeling bad about ignored e-mails...she arranged to call one person who would then send out an e-mail on behalf of the family. Everyone wanted to know how things were going....but nobody wanted to be bothersome. This worked great--maybe have someone volunteer to be this point person.

(5) She had family members come to care for her children....so her friends were more of the second string helpers! It is hard because we wanted to do more (she does so much for everyone else)....but I think helping just by listening to what she really needed and not trying to push help she didn't want on her (and thus giving her another thing to deal with--being polite and gracious when she just wanted to be left alone).

Hope everything goes well.... a year later, things seem to be going fine for my friend and her DH! Truly a blessing!

 

[bumbershoot]

You might also want to make sure there are no restrictions on the kinds of food. For instance, low sodium, etc, to make it easier on her one kidney.

 

[Mkrop]

My friend donated her kidney to her own DH last fall. I would say that her recovery took about 3 weeks (although I'm sure she would say she wasn't 100% yet at that time). However, she was out and about in stores and such after about 2-3 weeks. She likened the incision to a C-Section, but said the recovery was a bit harder (for one thing, she was older than she was when she had a c-section) and there was also the worry/stress of caring for her husband.

Anyway, one thing to note, we weren't able bring her ANY food/meals. I think this was really more to do with her DH's recovery (low immunity as a result of receiving the transplanted kidney)...but I would just double check with your friend that she can accept the meals safely.

Other things my friend asked for (and this was pulling teeth because she didn't want much help):

(1)Cards and little "keep them busy" activities for her kids. I think she was concerned that much time would be dedicated to recovering and thus, less time for her children.

(2)She made a list of "People to call in a pinch....to run an errand, etc" We all gladly agreed to be on that list!

(3) It was holiday time, so we offered to help get their decorations ready (ie. put up the tree). Gosh darnit if they didn't get it done before they went off to surgery...but we offered!

(4)Phone call/e-mail updates on their behalf--- To avoid having everyone call or feeling bad about ignored e-mails...she arranged to call one person who would then send out an e-mail on behalf of the family. Everyone wanted to know how things were going....but nobody wanted to be bothersome. This worked great--maybe have someone volunteer to be this point person.

(5) She had family members come to care for her children....so her friends were more of the second string helpers! It is hard because we wanted to do more (she does so much for everyone else)....but I think helping just by listening to what she really needed and not trying to push help she didn't want on her (and thus giving her another thing to deal with--being polite and gracious when she just wanted to be left alone).

Hope everything goes well.... a year later, things seem to be going fine for my friend and her DH! Truly a blessing!

These are great suggestions, thanks! I really like #4!

You might also want to make sure there are no restrictions on the kinds of food. For instance, low sodium, etc, to make it easier on her one kidney.

This is good suggestion too, but we are also making this for the big family of her, DH and 4 kids and whatever helper she ahs there so I am not sure we are going to cover it all. But this is a good question to ask, if she has any dietary restrictions.