“A tank of gas…and a sandwich.” April 28, 2013

My mom donated $100 to the documentary the other day. $50 of that was from her neighbor, LaVon. A couple days later, I got this awesome card in the mail. I bawled like a baby when I read it. A future donor donated (again) today, and her comment for her donation was “For a tank of gas and a sandwich,” because she had seen the card when I posted it on Facebook. So, it’s been kind of a motto the past few days.
LaVon is 82. She took the time to send this to me. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

 

It’s Social Media, NOT “Me!Me!Me!dia” March 27, 2013

One of the things that’s most frustrating about being so heavily involved in Social Media, is that sometimes it feels like I’m the only one paying attention to others.

I have several friends who post updates all day long, mostly from their phones. These are people are who close friends, yet when I mention something I’ve been talking about for MONTHS, they’re surprised that they’re just hearing about it.

Now, I don’t really care about the GenPop of friends/followers on my Social Media accounts. But my friends? I pay attention, and expect them to, too. They are also the people who actually know how many friends/followers they have, and get upset when they lose someone. My guess? They got deleted for not paying attention to those who pay attention to them. It’s a give-give world out there.

I’m not sure if narcissistic is the word I’m looking for. Maybe self-absorbed? No idea. What I DO know is that those people I’ve always paid so much attention to have been removed from my lists/circles on Twitter and Facebook. It may seem petty, but I’d rather pay attention to those who do the same.

So, if you’re doing Me!Me!Me!dia and losing friends, and followers, it couldn’t hurt if you occasionally actually go to your “home” screen and like/comment on what others are saying.

 

The podcast I did yesterday is setting records for downloads! March 15, 2013

My friend Chris, who I’ve known for about nine years, set me up to do a podcast called “Positively Speaking” yesterday. It was a great experience and the host, Bill Poett, was very easy to talk to.

For the first 45 minutes, it was me telling my story. Things blew up, though, when we started to get callers. Grab your Kleenex and have a listen!

 

Positively Speaking 3/14/12

How to do a chat on Twitter March 10, 2013

There are many, many chats on Twitter for people to participate in. They are found by knowing what the hashtag for the chat is. For example, I know on Tuesday evenings, there is an #smmanners chat. It’s a discussion of Social Media manners. Chats are awesome because you can learn a lot from people you may not interact with.

So, once you know what the hashtag is, you can search the hashtag and jump in. What I prefer, though, is to go to tweetchat.com. You log in with Twitter, enter the hashtag of the chat, and see what everyone is saying. Every tweet you send out while using tweetchat.com will automatically include the hashtag.

If you use Tweetdeck (not sure how other third-party apps work), you can add a column with the hashtag.

Always remember (except for when you use tweetchat.com) to add the hashtag into your tweet for others to see.

 

Sometimes I vent & don’t expect it to hurt people’s feelings. Ugh. March 9, 2013

I had the pleasure of being a guest at a nephrology conference last week. I had no idea what to expect going in there, but I wanted to make connections with people and, of course, share my story. My heart sank a little when I saw the itinerary of talks, as I didn’t see anything given BY a donor. As everyone knows, live organ donation has become my life’s cause. I didn’t choose this path. It chose me.

I tweeted my frustration at the lack of the point-of-view from a donor. I often use Twitter to do so, and my words were taken out of context. That breaks my heart, because I wasn’t targeting any one person or organization. I remember crying as I left the conference, because I had just left a presentation that included people on dialysis speaking about their illness.

Kidney disease is an epidemic. I don’t think enough people talk about it, which is why I do. I’ll die before I ever stop telling people our story, about my donation, and the problem right now in the USA. (I just don’t know much about other countries and kidney disease.)

There are almost 100,000 people on a list, waiting for an organ. Roughly 94,000 of those sick people are waiting for a kidney. 94%. It truly breaks my heart.

I just wish everyone could work together to spread the gospel.

I just wish I hadn’t seen those sick people, but it gave me more fuel on my journey.

I just wish my words didn’t offend anyone.

I just wish my tweet hadn’t been taken out of context, and that I explained myself better.

I just wish that 94,000 people will come forward to donate.

Is that so much to ask?

Crunch time & the word is spreading! February 24, 2013

If I had to make a guess, I’d say about 5000 people know about this film so far. That’s because of Social Media. It could be more, could be less, but that’s what I’m guessing.

Here’s what 5000 people means to me. Think of that Humane Society poster from many years ago, with how many cats come from one coupling of unspayed/neutered cats.

That’s 5000 people who may be hearing about kidney donation for the first time.

That’s 5000 people who may know their own TinyMom.

That’s 5000 who may change their driver’s license to be a donor when they die.

That’s 5000 people who will tell everyone they know. Even if it’s just a few, that’s still 5007 more people.

That’s 5000 people who will know, through all the interviews in the film, living kidney donors. They will feel with us. They will laugh and cry with us in this film. They will see that we are just normal people.

We are not heroes. We are people who saw a dire need and responded. We are people that truly believe in love for others. We are people that would do anything we could to help. We are people who did something that everyone SHOULD be doing.

What happened to society? What happened to people simply caring for their fellow man? Why have we become so selfish? I had a long conversation about this last night. I don’t like being called a hero. It makes me uncomfortable. If you could see what I got in return, you’d understand. Well, you’ll see it in the film.

(Oh, and change your driver’s license!)

What’s your legacy? February 8, 2013

To most people, it’s having and raising amazing children that go on to be amazing people. I don’t have kids. I will be 42 next week, and it’s not likely I will ever have them. It just wasn’t in the cards for me. So, this film will be my legacy.

I’m angry. Anger sparks my passion. I’m angry at the lack of awareness of live organ donation. But what I’m lacking in even more is the failure of awareness of donors. I don’t mean we need a trophy. I mean nobody talks about the donors.

There’s no foundation to mentor donors. There is nothing out there as an organization of donors to help raise awareness. To educate the public on what it’s like to donate. To give more attention to something that is so easy and will cut the number of people on dialysis. Yes, dialysis is there, and it works. But how about ending it for more people with a kidney?

I’m angry that I didn’t know how easy this was, or I would have done it long ago. Of course, I’m quite happy with my kidney being inside TinyMom, because I adore her. It’s an unbelievable connection!

I’ve always been the “Well, if it’s gonna get done right, I’d better do it” person. That’s why I’m making this film. I’ll never shut up about it, either. I’m going to get emails from around the world from people who are testing to donate. Or already have. Because of a movie. Because of all these donors who have agreed to be in the movie. They’re agreed to talk about something so personal, but we love to talk about it.

My legacy? Opening up people’s minds, which will open their hearts, and then their guts. To donate a kidney.