The Story Once upon a time, Marshall's high school girlfriend (who is really awesome and I'm super glad I met her) posted a Facebook plea for a kidney for her friend's mom. I've been donating blood every 56 days for years. I donated my eggs last year to an infertile couple in Arizona. Why not donate a kidney for a woman I've been told makes the best pecan pies when pecan pie just happens to be my favorite? So I called the phone number I was given and shipped off a few tubes of my blood to see if we could make some magic happen. Magic did happen, and I'm a match! I fly to Memphis for the week of May 1-5 to meet with the psychiatrist, be evaluated by the donor team, discuss everything with the transplant surgeon, and get an EKG, full body CT scan, and chest x-ray. I have to postpone the transplant until after our big conference at work, but I'm scheduled to have a kidney removed Tuesday, May 31, which will be followed by a few nights in the hospital and then a week or so at a hotel near the hospital so they can monitor my healing and make sure everything's on the up and up. The recipient's insurance pays for all of the medical costs, but they do not provide for any of the incidental costs of the procedure like actually getting to the hospital when you're from out of state. I've applied for help through the National Living Donor Assistance Center, but I won't find out about that until right before the date when I need to go to Memphis for my last round of medical tests. If that comes through for me, any additional money raised here over what's needed to cover the basics will be donated back to the NLDAC to pay it forward for another living donor. Anyone who knows me well knows I don't like asking for help (I focus grouped this with a lot of people before deciding I was okay with making this) but the expenses are just too much for us to handle on top of everything else. Cost breakdown, in case anyone is curious: •$1500 - three roundtrip flights to Memphis (they're making me bring Marshall for the surgery so I'm not post-op by myself in a hotel somewhere like a pitiful monster) •$750 - rental car (5 days for the first trip, 10 days for the second at $50/day) •$1100 - hotel ($100/night for the surgery trip, staying with a friend for the week of testing) •$725 - food ($35/day for 5 days of me, $50/day for 10 days of both of us) That's a total of $4,075 for the mathematically disinclined (like me). I just got word from the National Living Donor Assistance Center that they rush-approved my application and they'll be helping to cover the costs! I don't know how much yet, but please don't donate until I get word. If they're able to cover everything, I'll try to return the donations that were made and if that doesn't work then I'll donate the entire amount to NLDAC so that another donor can be helped in the future. I'm touched and overwhelmed by the generosity of the people in my life and the people in their life