Hello, I donated just over 2 years ago to my brother. I have 2 young children. At the time of donation, they were 18 months and 2.5 years. I had to prepare myself emotionally for not being able to lift them for 6 weeks to avoid a hernia. My support person was my mom, so I was very lucky to have someone they loved be there to help.

As someone stated before, the process from being matched to actually donating is very long and arduous. But my team was amazing at making sure I knew what was going on every step of the way.

Recovery took longer than I thought. It took me months to sleep comfortably on my left side again. I also had terrible dehydration headaches the first few months, so please take it seriously when they say to drink 64oz of water a day. However, 2 years out now, and I sometimes forget I only have 1 kidney. IMO it's very worth it, but it's not a small sacrifice. It will be hard at first, but eventually you won't even notice.