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can you check if you're a match in advance?

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2016 11:03 am
by thewullsta
My wife has PKD. We have the same blood type, and when the time comes I'd love to be able to offer her one of my kidney's. Is there a way, for peace of mind, to to get tested and find out if our tissue type and cross match would work between us?
Many thanks.

Re: can you check if you're a match in advance?

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2016 1:55 pm
by wagolynn
Hi the wullsta,

Talk to the health professionals about this.

A lot will depend on what stage she is at, some people with PKD never reach the stage where a transplant is required, hence the medical world, rightly, tend to take it one step at a time.

Also the progress of PKD tends to be very variable, between individuals, and in an individual, so the 'when' question cannot be answered too far in advance.

Between a transplant date and now your health may well change sufficiently to make a donation unwise. I am not saying your compatibility may change, but your health.

looking at what I have written, I could have said, ' if all that has happened so far is that she has been diagnosed but is otherwise OK, then put it on the backburner, and get on with making the most of your lives'.

Best wishes.

Re: can you check if you're a match in advance?

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2016 3:00 pm
by Thumps
^^^ I concur. There's little point in trying to plan in advance, PKD is no respecter of our feeble attempts to control our futures.

It's great that you want to do this, but you will have so many health checks to go through at the right time that I would suggest just making it clear to your partner that you're committed to getting checked out when the time comes and get on with enjoying your lives without such intrusion for now.

(For reference: PKD patient transplanted 8 years ago living donor!)

Re: can you check if you're a match in advance?

Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2016 5:44 am
by thewullsta
thank you all....