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.

A new study concludes that Plavix is not contraindicated prior to kidney transplant.

Another study has shown that combo therapy of CellCept and Rapamune after calcineurin withdrawal (Prograf or Cyclosporine) is shown to produce improved renal function.

The other day, I posted a story of some Japanese gangsters coming to the US and getting liver transplants. An official in the Phillipines is now proposing that the Phillipines ban foreigners from receiving kidneys from Filipinos. After further researching this, I found that they actually DID ban non-related kidney transplants on April 29, although they did just exempt 8 Israelis from the ban (they were "grandfathered").

Another reason to be "chronically positive". Reuters reports on a study which shows that depression can lead to a poor kidney transplant outcome.

For those who are diabetic, here is an interesting German study which has shown that simultaneous kidney-pancreas transplantation increases long-term survival in Type 1 diabetics with concurrent ESRD.

I had the new up and coming "tolerogenic immunosuppression" protocol with my transplant, which is steroid free maintainence (although I did get 2 IV doses of Solu Medrol peri-operatively). From Stanford comes a study of steroid free immunosuppression in Pediatric transplant patients which looks very promising.

Not all of the transplant news is good: 1 person is dead, and another critically ill after receiving transplants from a 49 year old homeless man infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, or LCMV, a hard to detect virus transmitted from rodents. Try not to get too freaked out if you are awaiting a transplant; deadly infections from a donor are always possible, but not probable. In my case, I received my kidney from a teenager with a history of drug abuse. Due to this, I'm being monitored for hepatitis and HIV, but I don't dwell on it. It's risk vs benefit; if I get either, I feel that it is a chance I agreed to take, and luck wasn't with me, but it was still worth it. EVERYTHING in life is risky; we take a risk of injury or death every time we get into a car, or cross a street, etc.

As for my progress, you can visit my other blog to keep updated.