Five Years
It’s been just over five years since I donated my kidney to some person in Minnesota. I don’t talk about it that much any more. I’ve discovered that there is a large part of the population who views you with suspicion if you do something they would never consider. And another significant population who think it’s inappropriate to feel proud of doing something for someone else. I probably could have written that clearer but now you know I didn’t use AI for this.
I took the blog section off of my site navigation because I’m on the job hunt again, more of that in a moment. It’s my impression that having a personality is too risky in this job market. So this is now an exclusive area of the site now and you should feel blessed to be here.
It’s nice to not be commuting. New site sections: Mayor, Motion, FLC, additions to Weather.
Sometimes I regret the donation. In the long view I believe that directly saving a life is the most baller thing you can do with your time on earth, and that won’t change. But lately I’ve been waking up in arthritic pain and I can’t take any anti inflammatory drugs. Given how it’s flaring up during this stressful time in my life it might be rheumatoid or psoriatic, but I no longer have health insurance so I won’t be finding out for a while. The cheapest plan available for a self/unemployed person is $450/month and covers absolutely nothing.
If you hadn’t heard I lost my job with the Nashville Government photographing the mayor. The person I was hired to replace sued the government for wrongful termination, because there was only a year of documented fuck ups and they didn’t suspend him before firing. Personally I wouldn’t go back to a job I was fired from; but he gets to work from home and is unemployable elsewhere so I get it. I got subpoenaed but the government lawyers didn’t go to court for it, they just settled.
When I posted this photo of the Starbucks CEO (left) my mother earnestly said I should email him and ask for a job
I really thought that type of thing wouldn’t happen to me after donating my kidney. I wasn’t expecting to be showered with gifts or anything but I did think I’d at least not have to struggle for employment. Like employers would want to hire a donor. But I’ve applied for over 50 jobs in the last two months and it is proving to not be the case. My fiance calls this magical thinking, but also once admitted she might not have swiped right on me on Bumble if I weren’t a kidney donor. Maybe that’s enough for it to be a fair trade.
If I felt secure financially or even just stable I don’t think I’d have any regrets about the kidney though
I do have a secret weapon against the swelling though. It’s called Metamizole or Dipirona (which I sometimes sing to the tune of My Sharona). It’s illegal in the United States but I muled back a couple dozen packs after a trip to Brazil last year. It’s an OTC pain and swelling reliever that’s primarily processed in the liver rather than the kidneys, so I don’t have to worry about damaging my remaining kidney like I would with ibuprofen.
It’s illegal in the US because there is a significant risk of it one-shotting your immune system and giving you instant HIV, more or less. However this risk seems limited to people with white European ancestry, making it the ultimate Antifa weapon. That happens to be my ancestry but it’s worth the risk until I can better treat my old man disease. Plus I read White Fragility so I should be safe.