Kidney
Re transplant
April 12, 2021
in Kidney
How do you know it is time to retransplant a kidney....it is a scary time when your levels keep getting worse
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I’m following this because I have been curious about this.
When it was time for my heart re-transplant I physically felt the decline first, then my levels started to get worse.
Transplant Patient
This is a great question, and something I've tried not to think too much about. The answer I always give as to whether or not I'll need another transplant is I don't know. I really hope not! I'm not expecting to live until 90 or anything, but I hope this liver just takes me to the end of my life.
I've never felt my declines (Maybe this is just because I've changed so much I'm not sure what my normal is anymore) but my medical team has always kept a close eye on me and been overly cautious, so I feel confident they would catch it if things started to go downhill to the point of me needing another transplant. I'm curious to hear other people's answers though!
Transplant Patient
I feel a change for sure - not as energetic and more of a tendency to put on water weight - I also see my values increasing and that scares me
I have dealt with this so many times over the years. 4 different times that I thought I would need dialysis to survive. One time I was in acute cellular rejection. I was insanely tired, unmotivated, retaining water, not eating. But the transplant team and I went for some aggressive treatments at the time and my body responded. The other close calls were types of chronic rejection episodes. It felt like my body was sputtering out. I always feel my body doing stuff before it shows up on labs. It has been very scary at times. Its when I get super pushy with my transplant team. And call thousands of times asking what we are going to do about it. Just a couple years ago when I stopped making urine I thought for sure that was the end. But my kidney shaped up and got back to working after some high doses of steroids and IVig.