My Kidney Donation Story: Amanda Weichselbaumer

In January 2022, my husband, Eric, was admitted to the hospital for a blood clot. He ended up being in the hospital for three months. I remember getting to the hospital and being told that he was lucky to be alive. It was comparable to him being hit by a semi-truck.  

By the morning, he was stable but that afternoon they started to notice that they weren’t getting as strong a pulse in his right leg, so they went back in to look for clots. At that point, we knew his kidneys had been impacted, but clearing the blood clots out of his leg was the priority.  

They did the secondary surgery, then on a Friday we were told that he was in too fragile a state to go through another surgery. They said we are going to hope he does OK over the weekend then we will look at next steps. He made it through the weekend, but they could not keep up with the blood loss and the clots had caused so much damage, so the decision was made to amputate the leg. 

We were told that it was too soon to tell if his kidneys were going to wake back up. In the meantime, he was on continuous dialysis in the ICU. As he got better, he got moved to intermediate care and started doing dialysis in a room at the hospital with other kidney patients. I remember going into that room with him and seeing all these other people who were so sick and getting dialysis. Just being in that space and seeing how hard the treatments were, I just was not mentally able to stay. It turned out they would not let me stay anyway.  

When he was discharged, he continued to do dialysis treatment. They kept saying it would take six to nine months for his kidneys to wake back up. The only dialysis appointment they had was early in the morning, so every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I would wake up at 5:30 a.m. and take him for treatment. 

As we were getting into that six-to-nine-month window, they did not see any activity with his kidneys and the doctors said they needed to get him on the transplant list. I went through the initial testing and was immediately told I was not a match based on my blood type. 

We decided to pause on me because we were lucky enough to have a lot of family and friends who were willing to be tested. I still have two young children, and people were saying that I should be the last person they considered as a donor.  

Close to 10 people in our network stepped up and tried to be his donor, but one by one, all of them were eliminated. Almost a year passed, and it got me thinking that I should just go through the evaluation process. I wanted to know if I could possibly be a good candidate for someone else or if I would be eliminated too.  

I reached back out to the transplant team and said I wanted to move forward with the rest of the evaluation. I did my evaluation on the day after Christmas, 2023. That gave me a better understanding of the process. For me, it moved really quickly. By the middle of January, I was told that I would be a good candidate to donate a kidney.  

We had one other person who was eligible but needed to make some lifestyle changes first, and one of Eric’s golf buddies could donate in March. I thought, even if someone else became his donor, I might still be able to donate on his behalf. He is going to be 40 this year and will most likely need a second transplant at some point, so I wanted to donate and stack the vouchers. He could use my voucher 25 years from now and we wouldn’t have to wait as long the next time. 

I am a teacher, so I was originally planning to donate during my summer break, but I also had my spring break coming up. I was made active on a Friday at the end of February, and by that Monday they called to say they had found a match. I donated on March 18, 2024.  

I really wanted to donate for Eric. It was so difficult to live with someone undergoing dialysis and see how hard it was on his body and how little energy he had to do his work and interact with our kids. There were so many things he should be enjoying, and I knew he really wanted to golf.  

There’s also no easy way to travel when you’re doing dialysis. You can’t just walk into a dialysis center. We had to navigate that with family functions like weddings and his opportunities to golf out of state, combined with him always being so tired. Once I got the go-ahead to donate, I wanted to do it because it would help him and help our family.  

I would also get to help somebody else who is maybe in a similar situation. Hopefully, my donation would make their life better, too, and allow them to live life without having to worry about dialysis.  

They told us we would probably have to wait six to nine months after I donated to find a match for Eric, but they found him a match within 3 months.  

I was really lucky with my recovery. For anyone considering kidney donation, if I could promise them the recovery I had, I would 100% tell them to go do it right now. I came out of surgery by 10 a.m. and I was up and walking by the afternoon. I wasn’t in much pain, and was able to manage it with only Tylenol. I was discharged early the next day. There were no complications. 

I took four weeks off work because that’s what was recommended but I really could have gone back to work two to three weeks later. I was doing pretty well by the third and fourth week and was back to 100% by around the six-week mark. I teach running, and eight weeks later I did a 5K then another 3.8 marathon relay with my school.  

My advice to anyone considering becoming a donor is to definitely go through the evaluation and get all the information and then make a decision. It ended up being one of the best things I’ve ever done. It gave me a lot of purpose, that I was able to help my family but also someone else.

About the Author

Amanda Weichselbaumer is an elementary school teacher based in Colorado, where she lives with her husband and two children. Dedicated to her family, Amanda enjoys spending time outdoors, whether it’s hiking, golfing, snowboarding, or attending local sporting events. She has a passion for teaching young minds and is deeply involved in her community.

Amanda’s selflessness extends beyond her role as a teacher and mother. On March 18, 2024, she became a living kidney donor, participating in the donor match program. By donating one of her kidneys, she not only helped save a life but also secured a voucher for her husband, who later received a kidney in June 2024. 

Amanda’s generosity reflects her commitment to making a difference in the lives of others while balancing a fulfilling family and professional life.