Life After Donation: A Son Reflects on Recovery and Impact

Recovering from living organ donation is a journey that extends beyond the operating room, requiring both physical resilience and mental adjustment. For Kyle Walker, the weeks following his January 2025 surgery brought a new perspective on healing, patience and the body’s ability to recover.

In this portion of his conversation with CURE, Kyle reflects on the realities of post-surgical recovery, from fatigue and physical limitations to the moment he saw his father begin to regain strength. He also shares insight into the emotional rewards that followed his decision to be a living donor.

You can read the first part of our conversation with Kyle here!

CURE: Can you share a little bit about your own healing process after January 2025, when you had that surgery, and how you were able to go back to your normal routine?

Kyle: One of the things they told me leading up to it was that I would be down for the count for about eight to 10 weeks after the surgery. Immediately after the surgery, I was in the hospital for four and a half days. Physically, it felt like I had done the hardest ab workout you ever want to do. My midsection was just really sore, and I was slower moving around.

The doctors had to kind of pull back the reins on me because I'm one of those people that wants to go, go, go. They were like, "Hey, just be careful." When I got out of the hospital, they told me to just take it easy. They said don't try to lift heavy things, don't go to the gym and work out, just relax. One of the things they were spot on about is how tired you get after the surgery. What you don't see is that an organ is regenerating in your body, and that's expending a lot of energy.

I would literally go and walk on the treadmill for like two hours in the morning, come home, and then take a nap for two hours uninterrupted. I'm not a nap person, so I definitely sensed I was more tired than usual, but that dissipated after a couple of weeks.

Before I knew it, it was eight weeks after the surgery. The good news was the doctor then told me I could start incorporating my normal routine, my workouts and my eating. It went fast. My biggest fear for myself was that I was just going to get really bored because I wasn't working.

Luckily, I was able to drive; they originally told me I wasn't going to be able to for at least four or five weeks. The time went quicker than I thought it would go, and it turned out well.

Again, it was during January, so it was cold out. Luckily, we didn't snow. But yeah, it went quick.

CURE: So good to hear. Now, talking about your dad again, you saw him go through some really tough times. What was that moment for you after the surgery when you looked at him and realized he's back, he's feeling better now?

Kyle: Yeah, so when we were in the hospital, he was a couple of doors down from me when we got moved to the transplant recovery wing. I would walk in and see him; I was always walking around during my four days in the hospital. He was still in a lot of pain because his surgery was a little different than mine.

Mine was laparoscopic; his, they did the old-school way. I think the recovery for that is a little more intense. He had a different surgery; he had an organ hooked up to him that I had taken out, and mine is going to regenerate. In the immediate time after the surgery, he was still feeling a little crummy, but over the course of the months since then—it's now been a little over a year—it's great to see him starting to feel better.

CURE: Starting to wind down our conversation a little bit today, the American Liver Foundation is launching the Living Donor Network for non-directed donors. With this being said, having gone through this for your father, what would you say to someone who's considering being a hero for a complete stranger?

Kyle: That's an admirable thing. Obviously, in my situation, it was for my dad. For someone to do it for a perfect stranger is admirable. For someone that's maybe considering it or on the fence about it, I can only speak from my personal experience. What I made sure I did leading up to the surgery was to get in the best physical condition I could have possibly been in, because I'm truly convinced that helped me recover quicker.

It's different strokes for different folks; some people are going to recover not as fast as I did. But the level of discomfort you're going to have after the surgery will be far outweighed by the level of happiness you're going to have after what you did. It's definitely a good thing.

CURE: What is one piece of advice you would like to give to anyone else who wants to help do this for someone, but they might feel overwhelmed by the medical complexity of it?

Kyle: I'm going to go back to that day of meetings I had with the doctors. They alleviated a lot of the stuff that was going through my head. A lot of what you hear about or see when you go on YouTube is not what it is now; the technology and the surgeries have improved.

With that being said, it's up to the person; you're going to decide whether you're going to do it or not. I know sometimes this medical stuff freaks people out, but for me, it was all in my head. I just said, "This is something you're doing for your dad. You're extending his life; you're saving his life." That outweighed any reservations I had about saying no to it, which wasn't even a question.

CURE: Kyle, thank you for sharing such an honest and inspiring perspective. Your experience shines a light on what it truly means to be a living donor; the courage it takes, the emotional challenges, and the profound reward of seeing a loved one get a second chance.

We're so grateful you shared this journey with us today.

Kyle: No problem.

CURE: For more resources on living donation and liver cancer, visit curetoday.com.

Transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

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