🌟 Post your 📸 📷 and share your stories in the comments. 🌟

I'll be wearing 💙💚 today in honor of ALL Organ, Eye and Tissue donors. Indeed, they 💙 DonateLife 💚 and are all heroes for saving lives by making the ♻️ Gift of Life ✅️ possible.

#beadonor #livingdonors & #organdonors #saveslives #DonateLife #GiftofLife

💙♻️✅️💚

#organdonation + #transplantation = #miracles 💯

** The annual Donate Life Blue & Green Day Photo Contest will open for submissions on April 10 and run through April 17.

My name is Jaderson Grangeiro, I’m 38 years old, from Brazil, and I work remotely as a regional manager for a university in Spain. I started hemodialysis two weeks ago, and I’d like to share my story.

I’ve always had a very active life. I worked on important projects, trained regularly, traveled to many countries, and always believed I was in perfect health.

Because I was always physically strong, training and pushing myself, I lived with high blood pressure for years but assumed it was normal. I’ve always been a very intense person, so I never saw it as a real problem. I rarely went to the doctor, only in extreme situations. I truly believed I was healthy.

In October last year, I developed pneumonia. I had severe shortness of breath and went to the hospital. The pneumonia was treated quickly, but the doctors kept me hospitalized because my blood pressure wouldn’t go down. After multiple tests, they found abnormalities in my kidneys.

I was discharged and told to see a cardiologist and a nephrologist. The cardiologist diagnosed several heart issues caused by years of untreated hypertension and prescribed five medications. Then I saw a nephrologist, who ordered more blood, urine, and imaging tests.

That’s when they found a stenosis in my left renal artery, along with extremely high levels: creatinine 7.5, urea 5.2, and very high potassium.

I was hospitalized again. They placed a catheter in my neck, and now I’m on hemodialysis three times a week. My doctors are pushing me to get a fistula, but I’m still reluctant, partly out of fear and partly for aesthetic reasons.

To summarize: I’m 38 years old. I went to sleep thinking I was healthy and woke up in stage 5 chronic kidney disease. My left kidney is severely damaged, and my right kidney is functioning at around 10%. The disease was completely silent. I had no clear symptoms until it reached end stage.

Everything is still very recent, and I haven’t adapted yet. It’s extremely hard for someone who was always strong and active to suddenly become dependent on a machine and face so many limitations.

I’ve been feeling things I never felt before: fear, insecurity, and a constant sense of losing control. At times, I feel powerless and deeply frustrated.

I apologize for venting, but I really needed to talk to people who understand what I’m going through. Sometimes, the optimism from family and friends doesn’t help, because it doesn’t reflect the reality I’m living.

My wife has offered to donate a kidney, but that also brings a lot of internal conflict for me.

For the first time in my life, I feel fear. Fear of complications, fear of the future, fear of not being able to protect my family the way I used to.

I’m still trying to understand how to move forward.

Organ donors 💙 DonateLife 💚 to give the ♻️ Giftoflife ✅️, and make secondchances possible for so many.

#OrganDonation + #Transplantation = #Miracles 💯

#BeADonor to #savelives #livingdonorsrock #shareyourspare

Every heart month I find myself reflecting back on the journey that brought me here. It always stirs up some complicated feelings; grief, thankfulness, awe. If you feel yourself having the same feelings about your transplant journey, you should totally check it out!

Today marks my six-month kidneyversary—an important milestone in this journey, and what a journey it has been. It all began on 7/9/2025, around 11 a.m., while I was at home having my coffee and working, as usual, when I received the call. In that moment, everything changed. I was excited, nervous, hopeful, and honestly a bit in disbelief that the time had finally arrived. I told my coworkers, gathered my family, and together we headed to the hospital to take this life-changing next step.

The doctors and staff were absolutely incredible—I cannot speak highly enough of their care and compassion. After surgery, I was home in just under a week, with my family literally by my side, even sharing the same room, as the recovery process began. Along the way, there were a few bumps in the road: a stent removal, fluid buildup that needed draining, a drain placement that led to a hematoma, a minor rejection caught and treated immediately, and even a short hospital stay due to a fever and infection. These were challenges, but I have no complaints—only gratitude. Thank God.

I was never alone on this journey. My family, friends, and everyone who prayed for me or sent positive thoughts have been an essential part of my healing. I truly could not have done this without any of you. Thank you, and God bless you all. This journey isn’t over yet, and I’m still discovering what comes next—but I am more hopeful than ever that this is exactly where I need to be, in my health, my life, and this journey forward.

Stay #Healthy, #Happy, and #Blessed 🙏🙏

🌟 May our lives always be filled with #hope. 👍🤞💯

*Groopman's research showed that during illness, hope had an impact on the nervous system that makes improvement and recovery more likely. This goes some way to explaining the “placebo effect” – a tangible physical improvement created by hope alone.*

To all of you who celebrate but also to those who are alone, afraid or just not in the mood!

I know these holiday times can be tough, stress of family perfection and presents for everyone - and then add uncertainty of health, financials (at least in the US), work and relationships- makes for a stressful experience. Historically I have often opted to escape - away from those who love me, after connecting around a meal or drinks, but then it is hard for me to relax or even relate to the often mundane conversation that seems so irrelevant to me… but with a young child it makes it both easier to 1) center the conversation on her to avoid conflict 2) do activities that she loves that often involve physical exhaustion or mental work… thank you Liv, for always saving me from myself and thank you transplant friends for hopefully understanding?