Has anyone here undergone a kidney transplant or know of anyone who has, and if so, how difficult was it? Can you tell me your experience?

My sister in law had a kidney transplant. She had diabeties.
She had a shunt put in her arm to help dialysis. That’s a tube that extends the blood artery outside the body. They did the transplant surgery, but during the surgery, the shunt got a clot, and she lost the arm. While they were doing surgery to remove the arm, she had a stroke. Shortly afterwards, she had a heart attack. After recovering from all this, she tried suicide, and ended up in the psyche ward for a bit. Her body rejected the kidney, and she ended up in dialysis again. She was living with us during this time, then went into a board and care facility. She left there, and moved in with her estranged mother, (her mom beat both her and my wife in violent drunken attacks, and abandoned them while they were in their teens) and lived there for a month or two, before dying of insullin shock. This surprised no one, since her habit was to double up on her insullin, and have an ice cream shake. She died at 34, and looked like she was 70. She had 3 kids. The first was still born. The second died of crib death. The third had chicken pox or measles, and survived it, but it left him retarded. She gave him up to adoption after she divorced. When my life gets me down, I think of her, and how lucky I really am.

Wow. Sorry. Got carried away with memories of all that. The thing to remember here was that she didn’t take care of herself, and it wrecked her life. If your friend goes thru this, they need to really work hard, and do what the doctors tell them.

I have talked to some people that perform them. The surgery is often more risky for the donor than the recipient. The donated kidney can be placed pretty much anywhere in the abdomen, so they can get in and out more quickly.

The kidneys are well protected in the normal position, so the surgery to extract them is usually more demanding and longer. This only refers to live donor of course.

I have an acquaintance who gave her son one kidney when she was in her late 60’s. Both mother and son seem to be flourishing. This was several years ago, and no news is good news.

A young friend was able to give his partner a kidney two years ago. Both seem to be doing well; said friend is almost finished with grad school, partner is back working full time. Both live relatively healthy lifestyles.

I have a couple of friends who have had kidney transplants. I think both are around fifteen years on the kidneys and are experiencing the failure of the anti-rejection drugs. I don’t know, but they may be facing the need for another operation—something much more risky at their ages.

Still, a successful operation is much better than sitting around waiting for yours to fail. It’s not fun. You have the operation itself, which is very tough, and then you have the recovery and the constant need for drugs to keep it from being rejected.

If you have any other conditions, the drug interactions can get very complicated. Sometimes you have to choose between handling your kidney rejection and medicating for some other condition. It can be tough. Usually you have to learn to handle the other condition without drugs, if you can.

I’ve had extensive kidney surgery. They were set to remove my right kidney but luckily were able to save it. A number of blood vessels had tied a knot around it and strangled it nearly to death.

I got a really great foot long scar to show off to the kids. And I’m not sure they sewed all the muscles back together properly because now I can flinch my back and turn the scar into a frowny face. The kids love it… but they won’t touch it haha!

He’ll pee blood for a few weeks and the catheter will be forgotten about until they pull it ouch… I mean out. Took about a year for me to get back to drinking vodkaaaaahhhhh… I mean back to normal.

My father just had a kidney transplant. I’ll see if I can get him to talk about. The surgery was fantastic, and he’s doing great!

@andrew: Lovely news. Was the donor a family member or from a donor bank?

@gailcalled A family member.

So you can report on the issues relating to both the giver and receiver. Good karma to both of them.

My father has gone through 2 kidney transplants. It is hard, but the most important thing is that you trust the hospital and the Drs operating on him. It is a blessing when the kidney is working fully and the patient can return to a normal life. Something to always remember is that the kidney can always be rejected, and you must be prepared for that to happen. The wait for the kidney after the patient is placed on the donor list can be excrutiatingly long and painful. He may get a call that says there may be a kidney for him, and when he arrives at the hospital they will do some tests. Later the Drs may decide that the kidney would be better placed with another recipient. This isnt bad because you know that someone else’s life is about to get better. It is not the worst thing that can happen to a person, and I am sure that everything will work out for him.

as Andrew said, I’m doing great. I transplanted on January 21, 2010. For the recipient the surgery is pretty simple and not too intrusive. They tuck the donated kidney, usually in the right lower abdomin, just above the groin, above the hip bone. I can feel it if I push gently on the lowere right side, really cool!!! I had about a 7 inch incision that only went through the skin and the abdominal muscle layer, and stopped above the intestinal containment “sack”. The surgeon just tucks it in, hook up the artery and vein that were attached to the donor kidney to the artery and vein in the groin that go to right leg, then hook the uterer (sp?) that was still attached to donated kidney and splice it into the bladder. About a 4 hour surgery. I my case they left the two native kidneys which had about 5% function, so right now I have 3 kidneys. The incision was sore for a few days, but they had me out of bed the next morning and walking the halls two days later. I was discharged at surgery plus four days. I’ve been on restricted driving (while on pain meds), restricted lifting, pushing, pulling, no golf swings. Some restricted diet,, mostly for food borne pathegins for which I now have no immunity. Do frequent blood work so they can monitor kidney function and rejection med levels. Had a stent in the uterer for about two weeks and had to go back and have that removed. Not such a big deal, even for a male! Used some numbing gel in the penis and it took about 10 minutes. The nurses offered to let me watch the live video, I declined. I had not been on dialysis but would have been within two weeks. I was in reasonable good physical condition as I did as much as I could to strengthen my core prior to surgery. I lost some weight prior to surgery. My sister donated, so we were a “perfect” match in the jargon of transplant. I am truely blessed. The surgery was done at University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison, WI, where they are number one or two in the world for most kidney transplants. I highly recommend UW.

@kelly Thank you for your answer!!! ;)

Contact me anytime to discuss. Is there a way to connect direct email? Kelly

@kelly: Such heartening news. I hope that you and Peggy Lou are back in the Fluthermobile and having more adventures soon. Gail

@gailcalled we’re planning a Fluther outing now for later this summer to see Andrew and all. Regards, K and PL

i am a live kidney donor, and both me and my friend are doing great, its been 3 years now and so far no sign of rejection on his part.

also the most waiting part is the blood and tissue testing to see if everything is a match. and if the antibodies will work together. the surgery took about 5–6 hours, for the donor the pain is a little more high, but to know that a life has been saved is much more worthy. i have a scar about 4 inches on my belly and 3 small ones where the tubes were placed, i am healthy and cant feel any difference. as long as your in a good transplant facility like the st. francis transplant center in hawaii, you will be well cared for . and if your wondering, you will not have to take life time medications after

Almost a month ago, our daughter (37) donated a kidney to her father (53). I am happy to report that so far both are doing fantastic. The pain was much worse for our daughter (donor) then my husband. Her surgery lasted about 3 hrs. and he was in surgery almost 6 hrs, so the day of surgery he was pretty much out of it.
The surgery was on a Friday, daughter went home on Sunday and husband the following Wednesday; post-op day 5 due to having to have 5-IV doses of anti-rejection medications. He was up walking the halls the next day and showering day 2. He had a catheter for 4 days; we were told this was to rest the new tube connecting the bladder and kidney. The new kidney started working great immediately after surgery and he did not have any blood in the urine after surgery.
Although he did take pain meds a few times while in the hospital he has taken nothing for pain since he has been home and says he feels great.
He was not on dialysis, but was within a few days/weeks from it and worked until the Tuesday before surgery. He put off surgery as long as he could, I know he was scared and sort of in denial, in fact he denied feeling bad before surgery, but was easily tired and was sleeping a lot. The day after surgery, he stated he felt fantastic and did not realize how bad he felt and wished he had not put it off so long. His color was better the day after surgery and I was amazed at how good he looked. His mood was fantastic and he is back to his happy-go-lucky self.
He does have blood drawn 2x a week and takes medications 3x a day; he will continue blood test (in some form) and medications for life, but he says this is a small price to pay for his life…..
I thank our daughter every day for keeping him here with us!
Good Luck to your family member and I hope he has as positive of an outcome as my husband. Hopefully he will update after he has surgery.