I'm back....anyway, after seeing my sister-in-law become more fatigued and somewhat depressed over the course of a year or so, I talked to my brother about donating a kidney for her. What I did not know at that time was that he had already been tested for compatibility....and was rejected because of another, unrelated problem that prevented him from being a donor. It took some time, but I finally convinced both of them to allow me to be tested. I won't go into why they did not want me to go through the tests but suffice to say they relented.

Following a series of examines and blood work, I was informed that I matched on five of six antigens. A blood filtering process, which eliminated the unmatched one, would allow my sister-in-law to use my kidney. Good news! Everyone was delighted....a bit scared, but delighted.

As with any husband, my brother was not comfortable with me being the donor for his wife and not him. With only about 2-3 months before the transplant, I told him not to worry about it as it was something that I wanted to do. He relented.

All the while my brother was dieting and exercising like crazy to get past the reason he was originally "rejected" as a donor. About 5 weeks before the surgery, he was retested. He passed! I was very happy for him...for the both of them.

More later...............