I was thinking about my "Test Day" and it occurred to me that making a blood donation next Wednesday, five days before the tests might skew the results, not to mention may leave me a little low on blood (they had mentioned the Test Day abs would take a "whole lotta blood" out). When in doubt, ask the question so I emailed my rep at the transplant centre and asked her (she hasn't asked where I got her email but google is indeed my friend!). Turns out not only am I not allowed to donate Wednesday, but I can't until I am deemed unfit to be a donor, I quit the application process OR the kidney has been harvested and I am cleared post-op. So sorry Canadian Blood Services, you cant have any of my O+ blood for at least about 4-6 months! My kidney is far more important. The irony is that I am the new Blood Donation coordinator at BwB. I guess I will just preach rather than practice. Nothing wrong with that.
I was reading some stats today as Quebec is making some legislative changes to the organ donation process (which is awesome). Quebec currently has more than 1,200 people waiting for organ transplants. The biggest demand is for kidneys, representing more than 75 per cent of the wait list. Unless Quebecors have really "kidney harmful" habits that the rest of Canada doesn't have, I have to think the rest of the provinces have similar stats (skewed to population size of course). That's a lot of people actively needing kidneys. A Globe and Mail article in 2009 stated that in Canada, 35,000 people have kidney disease, and there is a chronic shortage of organs. Nearly 4,000 people are on the wait list for a kidney from a deceased person, a wait that can extend to a decade in Toronto and Vancouver, depending on the patient's blood type. Living kidney donation is an attractive option, comprising 40 per cent of all transplants last year in Canada. Hmmm. No wonder this is making more and more sense to me.
