Psychological assessment

Before non-directed (altruistic) kidney donations it is mandatory to have a psychological assessment with a psychiatrist.  The reasoning is:

"Donation of a kidney can affect people in different ways and your mental health is as important as your physical health. A psychologist or counsellor will almost always see non-directed kidney donors to talk about their reasons for wanting to donate and the potential psychological impact on them"
--from the Give A Kidney website

Bizarrely, this is not required if you are donating to a friend or relative (though there is certainly an argument that it should be).  I was quite worried about it, as discussed in my previous post on the subject as I felt it would be very difficult to argue I was sane if a psychiatrist said I was not!

My appointment was on Monday and I had an hour in a tiny room with a psychiatrist, which was fairly nervewracking.  Questions included (and I've probably forgotten some):

• Why do you want to donate a kidney?
• What made you think of it in the first place?
• What do your family and friends think?
• How do you think you would feel if you changed your mind nearer the time, how would you cope with that?
• Are you expecting to hear from the donor after the operation? 
• How would you feel if the operation wasn't a success for the donor?
• Do you have any history of mental health issues? (this is not a deal breaker by the way)
• Do you take Class A drugs?
• Do you drink alcohol?  (also not a deal breaker!) 
• Are you religious at all?

I told him at the end that I was worried about this assessment because I'm not like normal people and he said, none of the people who come to see him for non-directed kidney donation are normal, which is strangely reassuring!  He also said that he could not see any impediment to me proceeding with donation but my case would be discussed at the multidisciplinary team meeting (which involves the psychiatrist, the kidney donor nurse I met at the start of the process and the consultant nephrologist). 

So for now, back to waiting and crossing fingers!