Do you have to do dialysis or can you go straigt to tx?

August 12, 2005

In a message dated 8/12/2005 12:45:35 P.M. Central Daylight Time,

pgl-groups@... writes:

a few people might need to do dialysis in the hospital

afterwards if the new kidney is slow to start working.

Coming out of lurker mode to answer this.

When I was transplanted, the need for postoperative dialysis (dialysis after

a transplant) was quite common because it generally took a while for the

transplant to start working. Of course, that was in the late 1970s, and things

are different now.

Robin s

August 12, 2005

Does everyone have to spend some time on dialysis or can you go

straight to transplant? , you said you were at 20% when Barb gave

you her kidney, were you every on dialysis?

Jill G.

August 12, 2005

If it is planned ahead of time as a pre-emptive transplant, and your kidney

function doesn't drop dramatically before the surgery can be scheduled, you

go straight to transplant without ever being on dialysis. The only exception

is that in some cases, depending on the results of the bloodwork, they might

want to do a hemodialysis treatment before the surgery to drop the potassium

level to normal, and a few people might need to do dialysis in the hospital

afterwards if the new kidney is slow to start working.

Pierre

Do you have to do dialysis or can you go straigt to tx?

> Does everyone have to spend some time on dialysis or can you go

> straight to transplant? , you said you were at 20% when Barb gave

> you her kidney, were you every on dialysis?

>

> Jill G.

>

August 12, 2005

Jill:

I was at 20% when I started my evaluation for getting a donation, not at the

time of the surgery. At 20% you qualify under most medical plans as able to be

listed on the UNOS list. Before that, the testing may not be covered, and it can

run big bucks. Also, UNOS would probably not list you before that point because

of the number of people already at that point or worse (it's around 70,000 in

the US).

If you have a potential donor, I would highly recommend the pre-emptive tx like

I did (meaning that you skip dialysis). It's one less event your body needs to

go through, and I was told the recovery is the fastest and easiest this way

(although the patients from dialysis usually feel a bit more 'better', but that

is due to the fact that they had already reached dialysis).

By the time my surgery rolled around, my function was in the low teens. If you

asked if I felt different at 20%, it's tough to say. The changes were gradual

for me and I never noticed (others did).

Jill aj72300@...> wrote:

Does everyone have to spend some time on dialysis or can you go

straight to transplant? , you said you were at 20% when Barb gave

you her kidney, were you every on dialysis?

Jill G.

To edit your settings for the group, go to our Yahoo Group

home page:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iga-nephropathy/

To unsubcribe via email,

iga-nephropathy-unsubscribe

Visit our companion website at www.igan.ca. The site is entirely supported by

donations. If you would like to help, go to:

http://www.igan.ca/id62.htm

Thank you

August 12, 2005

Hi Jill,

I'm at 13%, but no dialysis. My neph seems very focussed on preemptive

transplant and never having to do the dialysis, so I've had the transplant

evaluation but we have not planned for dialysis access.

So I'm hoping I won't need to have dialysis ever.

Sophia

> Does everyone have to spend some time on dialysis or can you go

> straight to transplant? , you said you were at 20% when Barb gave

> you her kidney, were you every on dialysis?

>

> Jill G.

August 12, 2005

Jill, I have not yet started dialysis and have been on the transplant

list for two months, as of tomorrow. If I had a potential donor that

was a match and finished all the testing with flying colors the

surgery could be scheduled within the next 3-6 weeks. So, No, you

don't have to be on dialysis to get a transplant.

Kathleen

> Does everyone have to spend some time on dialysis or can you go

> straight to transplant? , you said you were at 20% when Barb gave

> you her kidney, were you every on dialysis?

>

> Jill G.

August 12, 2005

HI Robin,

We have not heard from you in a long time. How are you doing these days?

In a message dated 8/12/2005 10:58:57 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,

KidneyKd@... writes:

Robin s

August 14, 2005

Jill, to add to Kathleen's point, my neph is emphatic re two things:

Living donors are to be highly preferred, being that even a poor match

generally will behave and last longer than a perfect cadaveric one; and that

transplantation before dialysis begins is also highly preferred....the

heterograft tends to last longer whether cadaveric or living.

The problem of course is that kidneys are in short supply (relative to

livers and hearts, where the average wait times are a couple months), the

average wait here in Texas being some 5 years for a cadaver donation.

As far as I can detect, many physicians are advocating earlier dialysis

starts than formerly.....of course dialysis is " easier, " to perform than

ever before....at inception, this was done only in hospital, only under

anesthesia, and by means of glass catheters inserted into great veins (of

course this is early 60's medicine if I remember rightly). The same appears

to be true of transplants....with the advent of FK506 (cyclosporine)

survival rates have improved dramatically for all solid organ transplant

classes.

Bart

Re: Do you have to do dialysis or can you go straigt to tx?

Jill, I have not yet started dialysis and have been on the transplant

list for two months, as of tomorrow. If I had a potential donor that

was a match and finished all the testing with flying colors the

surgery could be scheduled within the next 3-6 weeks. So, No, you

don't have to be on dialysis to get a transplant.

Kathleen

> Does everyone have to spend some time on dialysis or can you go

> straight to transplant? , you said you were at 20% when Barb gave

> you her kidney, were you every on dialysis?

>

> Jill G.

To edit your settings for the group, go to our Yahoo Group

home page:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iga-nephropathy/

To unsubcribe via email,

iga-nephropathy-unsubscribe

Visit our companion website at www.igan.ca. The site is entirely supported

by donations. If you would like to help, go to:

http://www.igan.ca/id62.htm

Thank you

August 14, 2005

Bart:

One quick correction - FK506 is tacrolimus (Prograf). I was in a test for that.

Bart Hawkins bkhphd@...> wrote: