Altruistic vs Non-directed

Just joined the Living Donors Online group. One of the donors on that site told me that some folks who have donated to a relative or friend object to the term altruistic when it refers solely to someone in my situation. Please don't shoot the messenger. I had always called my pending donation "non-directed"; however, in conversations with both NYP and NYU, they always used the term "altruistic donor". Being new to this...lol...I went along with the experts.
I can fully appreciate that, those who donated to a recipient whom they knew, would be offended by not also being called altruistic. By any definition, they surely are!
I apologize if my terminology insulted anyone. It certainly was not my intention.

More News....

Just found out that a final "team" meeting and decision won't be made until Oct. 1. Assuming no problems there, I would go to NYU on the 12th for pre-surgical tests and final cross match. They sure don't seem to be in a hurry. Feel sorry for the recipient having to wait through all of this.
Transplant date would now not be before the 21st.

NYU Team Meetings

I met with the rest of the NYU donor transplant team....social worker, nephrologist, surgeon and psychiatrist. All went reasonably well, except for one individual who was hard to read. We'll see how that goes.

The plan now....the "team" will meet in 1-2 weeks and the transplant coordinator will present the team members' findings for review and final decision to: a) go through with the surgery, or, b) get additional information from me or the recipient, or, c) outright deny approval for the transplant. While I don't that (c) is likely, one never knows.

Should all approvals be given, the surgery will take place in October, either the 14h of 21st.

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

News Article

Well, another newspaper (Home News Tribune and mycentraljersey.com website) ran a story about my pending donation. I hope that this generates some positive publicity for the Nat'l Kidney Registry; and encourages other to look at donating one of their kidneys. The picture of me was not too flattering, although they seldom are given the subject matter...lol.

Here's a link to the story for anyone interested......

http://eastbrunswick.injersey.com/2010/09/07/east-brunswick-man-donates-a-kidney-in-random-act-of-kindness

NYU Meetings

Meetings with last (hopefully) four doctors set for Sept. 14th. Assuming a positive outcome, a date for the transplant surgery should be discussed among the recipient, surgeon and me. Probably October timeframe. Stay tuned.............