Well, it's been 3 months since my transplant, and everything is going well.

Being that my hemoglobin has not hit 10 since before surgery, my Transplant Nephrologist started me on Procrit, and I had my first dose last week. I'm on 10,000 units weekly (had my 2nd dose today), and, of course, this dose will be adjusted based on my labs. I have labs tomorrow, but I don't expect a huge jump in my hemoglobin just yet.

Recently, there was a very interesting "thread" on the Yahoo kidney_transplants group having to do with writing to the donor family. Of course, this pertains to organ recipients that have received a cadaveric donation. But first, a little background.

Last evening, I was just reading an article online titled Positive Thinking Is Prescription For The Heart. There was a quote that got me thinking about how people approach illness:

Hard to believe, but it's been 9 weeks since my transplant. I've been very fortunate, in that the problems I've had are all minor. I did initially have ATN ("sleepy kidney"), but maintained adequate urine output, so my last dialysis was pre-op. I've also had some minor side effects of meds, including hand tremors, diarrhea (both of which resolved), and some abnormal labs.

A hot topic today in the transplant world is that of the potential recipient being given enough information about risk factors relating to a potential donor. In fact, researchers at Penn have proposed major changes in informed consent policy.

Well, I'm alive and well 7 weeks after my transplant. Actually, I'm doing fantastic, as evidenced by today's appointment with the surgeon.

Initially, I was told my appointments for the first 3 months would be every week, but lately, I've been getting weekly labs, and bi-weekly appointments.

It's hard to believe, but it's been 6 weeks since my kidney transplant. It actually seems longer than that to me, but that's probably because I'm feeling even better as each week passes, and I'm the type that usually looks ahead, and rarely back; but that's just me.

As you may know, I had gastric bypass surgery in January 2002. I had done pretty much everything to lose the weight (various diets, exercise, Fen-Phen, Redux), but I was never able to keep it off. My Nephrologist kept telling me to "get the weight off", and at the time, I was followed by a bariatric physician, who had suggested that I go for Gastric Bypass. I went for an initial evaluation in 1999, and chickened out.

Better late than never; Ireland just had their first spouse-to-spouse kidney donation/transplant. I'm certainly not criticizing it; I think it's great. But it's a little surprising that since this is relatively commonplace here in the US, that it's just now happening in Ireland.

From Ohio State University comes research implicating stem cells from a donor organ as a cause of cancer in the recipient.

I'm continuing to do well almost 5 weeks post-transplant. No incisional pain, and minimal minor annoyances (initial lack of bladder capacity which is improved, arm pain right after surgery that is no more, etc).

I got my weekly labs back, and everything is pretty much stable, except for my glucose.

But before I discuss my labs, I'll take this time to list the meds I'm on, as they are fairly standard for a post-transplant patient:

Prograf 3 mg in am and 2mg in pm. (immunosuppressant)

CellCept 500mg in am and pm. (immunosuppressant)