The kidney transplant was just the beginning: a personal column about the day after

After a kidney transplant, care must be taken throughout life to take a drug that prevents the body from rejecting the organ.

If treatment is stopped, even for one day, the results of the transplant are jeopardized.

Ira, a kidney transplant recipient, talks about life after the transplant and how significant the difference between two pills a day can be.

In collaboration with the Association for Patient Rights

06/01/2022

Thursday, 06 January 2022, 15:15 Updated: 15:21

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

• Share on general

• Comments

  Comments

From the side it seems that after a person undergoing a kidney transplant, or any other transplant procedure, the hard part is already behind him, but as someone who has had a kidney transplant I can attest that this is just the beginning.

What led to the deterioration of my kidney condition was the lupus disease in which I was diagnosed when I was only 38 years old.

Lupus is a disease in which the immune system attacks itself and affects organs such as the heart, skin, brain, lungs, joints and in my case - the kidneys.

We diagnosed the disease after half a year in which I suffered from very severe fatigue that accompanied me throughout the day, and at one point I also felt my hands swell.

A blood test led to hospitalization and later to a diagnosis of lupus, which appeared to be in an advanced stage.

More on Walla!

Rebirth: The New Options for Kidney Transplanters

In collaboration with the Association for Patient Rights

Upon discharge from the hospital I started steroid treatment, but the high dose weakened my immune system, and so a bacterium I was infected with was able to penetrate the brain.

When I started to feel that something in my speech was hurt I did not know that was the reason, the situation got so bad that I just could not get a word out of my mouth.

By then I was in a hurry to the hospital and there it turned out that the bacterium caused paralysis of one side of the body.

The rehabilitation was lengthy, and I did not know what to expect in the future and what else I could do, but slowly I got back to talking and walking.

But when I was able to recover, my kidney condition was found to be very bad.

At one point, the same conversation came with the nephrologist who told me what to expect, if he found a donor - a kidney transplant, and until then - dialysis.

My husband immediately offered to donate, but was denied when it became clear he was at increased risk for family-related diabetes.

Happily, we did not have to wait much longer until a kidney was found, thanks to a young donor who decided to go through this not-so-simple procedure even though he had never met me.

More on Walla!

• Shortness of breath on exertion?

  Instead of ignoring, go get tested

• The disease you did not know: this is what you must know about scleroderma

• Does B-Cure laser really help with pain?

  It's the truth

And here, after all the journey I went through, after going through a successful transplant - I realized that I was, as mentioned, only at the beginning of the journey.

Blood tests - twice a week, follow-ups - twice a week and check with a dietitian, rheumatologist, nephrologist and even a dermatologist.

And the rest of the time?

I do sports, diet, quit smoking and I have to be very careful about sun exposure.

The drug actually set my agenda.

Woman taking pill (Photo: ShutterStock)

After the transplant I also started to take a drug whose role is very important, it should prevent my body from rejecting the new kidney. But it was not a single pill swallowed with a glass of water and forgotten, continue as usual. In order for the same drug to do the job it had to be taken twice a day at exactly the same time, on an empty stomach, the drug actually set my agenda. Along the way I also experienced what happens when the body does not receive the treatment - two days after I missed only half a milligram - the blood test indicated such low values ​​that put all the transplant I underwent at risk.

Into this whole period was also added a global corona pandemic which threatened the whole world, and all the more so people like me, transplanted, whose immune systems are very weak, and therefore are at higher risk of being harmed. The epidemic has made the need for strict adherence to the sequence of treatment, tests, follow-ups and, of course, taking the drug according to the exact guidelines - a matter of life and death.

In a situation where the routine of your life is dictated by the treatment, when I was informed that there is a pill that prevents rejection of the organ that can only be taken once a day in the morning, I felt liberated.

I take the new medicine once a day in the morning, so I am free to manage my agenda as I wish.

When it comes to one pill, in the morning, the chances that I will forget to take it are much lower, and in our case, kidney transplants, a good response to treatment often means - life

• health

• Routine in the shade of the corona

Tags

• kidney transplant