Donating my kidney and I'm terrified

If you are terrified maybe you shouldn't donate. Do they, the medical team, know how terrified you are? I would think you would be required to have a mental evaluation before allowing you to donate. If after having them explain everything to you, you are still terrified, make be you should withdraw from your offer. Maybe you aren't a good candidate. I think you should give this some thought, there is no going back once it's done. No one will think poorly of you. It's a choice and you don't seem to be comfortable with it.

Last year I had one kidney removed.  You are about to have the same done.  Now mine was removed because it had a tumor.  Yours will be removed because you are making a donation.  The reason the kidney is removed does not change the procedure, the recovery, the potential outcome.  I will tell you about my experience with each.  Just remember, while I did have a tumor, my renal functions in all blood and urine tests were always great, even on the day of the operation.  I had no evidence in the way of pain or anything.  The tumor was found while I was getting a CT scan for another reason.

?The day of operation.  While nerves of course, I can assure you to not fear the procedure.  The doctor met me preop.  Wrote on my body which kidney was to be removed and I had to sign my initials there too.  I feel asleep.  woke up in my room hours later.  Catheter in place and a morphine drip (which I had control of.  If I felt pain pushed a button and it administered morphine.  I hardly touched it.  Only once that night I felt a sharp pain in the front lower abdomen.  The next day they had me up and walking (with the morphine attached).  I could not walk far at all.  Tired instantly.  but kept pushing myself.  2 days later I went home.  Was given pain pills which I never needed.  Discomfort only happened when getting up or down, and most especially in bed, when trying to change position or get in or out.  I ate almost nothing for 2 or 3 days.  No appetite.  It took 4 weeks to start to get better each day along the way.  About 4 months to where I was more like the "old" me.  I was driving after 2 weeks.  Walking each and every day, farther each day.  It is a long slow process but do not fear there will be a lot of pain.  There will not.  My biggest problem was getting a lot of hot flashes or sweating at night.  This was from the drugs they gave me to knock me out for the operation.  It took 2 weeks for this to stop.

?Post op condition.  Now remember my renal function was great.  But after removal and to this very day I have been classified as CKD stage 3b.  Because my creatinine levels went to 1.8 or 1.9 on average.  I have read and been told by doctors that 1.8 or 1.9 is quite common for a person with one kidney.  You only have one filter now instead of two.  It improved very slightly over the months.  I will never again fall in the "normal" range where I would NOT be classified as CKD.  HOWEVER, some people, do get near "normal" results and CKD is not even discussed.  A lot also has to do with your age.  Obviously younger people are more likely to stay in the "normal" range than are people of my age group (68).

?As far as safe it is hard to answer.  The operation is definitely safe.  The recovery while not an experience you want to have, is manageable and actually without a lot of pain.  You will be watching your diet more forever, but really it is something you should be doing even if you had two kidneys.  You are making a generous sacrifice.  

I think you might want to reconsider. Sure I have a friend who donated a kidney to his mum and he is doing just fine. However my husband recently had to have a kidney removed. I know it isn't the same thing at all but everything we got from the hospital had references to depression and suicidal tendencies being quite common after surgery. I don't know if you are normally an optimistic type of person or why you should still be so terrified after repeated encouragement, but you clearly are not really happy with this. Plus from reading these posts you will see that recovery time is often a lot longer than they say, just because you aren't sick to start with doesn't mean your body won't be traumatized.

One year ago yesterday my husband donated his left kidney to a family friend. They do them as an open procedure rather than a lap type surgery. He was in the hospital for 5 days, and off work for about 8 weeks. He is a very fit guy and I assume you are very fit and healthy, so I am sure your recovery will go great! Funny thing is that recently they found a lesion on my left kidney during a MRI and today I go for a three phase ct can to learn more about it. Good luck!