Update

Jtannen1987

So I know it’s been a few years since I posted but I have some awesome news. I got my kidney transplant last march2023 and despite the usual challenges post transplant I am happy to say things have been going well. I have had CMV because my donor was exposed to it so it’s been a challenge dealing with that. I had pneumonia twice in august/September last year. Also my calcium has been elevated that I had a parathyroidectomy last aug. it worked temporarily but it sneaked up again so I’m getting a couple of scans to try to find the other parathyroid gland. Which they tried to find during that parathyroidectomy surgery but despite looking they couldn’t find it however my last lab draw showed normal calcium so they will keep an eye on it. I get labs every 2 weeks. I’m close to having to see my nephrologist. Usually they discuss it around the 4 month mark but due to cmv I have been able to stay with my transplant doctor. I think by the fall I will have to switch back. However I will still get to go back once a year. So just a quick version of my story. So I was on dialysis for less than a year which was from September 2001 until June 16th 2002 when I received my first transplant. It lasted only 9 and a half years because they weren’t monitoring my taco level like they should and it became toxic so it failed in 2011 or 12 and I began dialysis again. During that time I mostly did pd but I had to be on hemo a couple of times. First in the beginning for a couple of months until I started pd. Then I developed a benign tumor in my transplanted kidney so I had a nephrectomy. I had to be on hemo for 6 months before going back to pd. Then after 11 and a half years last St. Patrick’s day I got the call at 3:00 In the afternoon and I was told to be at Tampa General hospital by 8:30 fortunately we only live 35 minutes away. I checked in went to a short stay until where they did the last minute testing and Saturday morning I went into the or and they did the surgery which took just about 3 hours. Woke up In recovery very groggy with a working kidney. I was in the hospital for 4 days. However 2 weeks post I ended up with a infection or a virus which they couldn’t figure out what it was which got into my new kidney and increased my creatinine to almost 7 at the highest fortunately there was no permanent kidney damage and creatinine and kidney numbers recovered nicely. Here are a few pictures of me post surgery.

AliEm14

Thanks for sharing your story with us! I'm so glad you're here

Jeanmarie

Thank you for the update! You sure have been through a lot! I am so happy things are going well for you now! Thank you for sharing!