Kidney Transplant Recipient Dehydration

[okarol]

This is from a friend, a kidney donor, in Louisiana. - Karol

Worthwhile info for kidney recipients:

Hello All,

Sorry to have been absent for so long.  WARNING:  I donated a kidney to my 24 year old son in July of 2005 and he has been just AWESOME since then.  He has NEVER missed a single dose of medicine, drinks plenty of water, stays out of the sun (unprotected etc...)  Last Thursday he got a little sick to his stomach at around 6 P.M.  It was just a stomach virus.  He was so nauseated he basically threw up everything that he drank.  This continued even though we pushed liquids until we decide that we better get him checked out at 4 the next morning.  The doctor at Tulane Medical Center in New Orleans said that Kyle was SEVERELY DEHYDRATED.  His bloodwork showed an elevated BUN and a Creatinine level of 2.8!!!!!!  This happened in only 10 hours.  After 2 days in the hospital his creatinine went down to 1.4 and they expect that it will go all the way back to 1.1.  We consider ourselves to be VERY AWARE and Medically savvy parents and still in that short time Kyle went from 0 to 100 and in the danger zone!  So to all of you kidney recipients, if you get a bug don't waste any time getting to a hospital and IV fluids.  I shudder to think what might have happened had we just let the virus "run its course".  (as we would have done had it been either of our other 2 boys)  Fortunately, we have a happy ending.  Any longer and it might have been disaster.

I hope this finds you all doing well. I wish you all the best in your individual struggles against kidney failure.  Thank God for the transplant surgeons of the world.

Keep the Faith,

Stan from Baton Rouge

[st789]

Thanks for sharings.

I always remind myself to do the same.

[coravh]

About 2 months after my transplant I contracted the Norwalk virus. I started throwing up at about 8 am and by noon in was in the ER. I just don't wait more than 4 hours if I can't keep anything down. I feel a lot safer that way.

Cora

[Sluff]

Thanks for the advice Stan. 

[Wattle]

   Great Info Karol and Stan,

The last thing you want to do when you feel that sick is to drag yourself out of bed and go to hospital. I would not have thought about the rapid dehydration risk to the transplanted kidney. So thank you.

[goofynina]

That was awesome for him to post that warning, and thank you Karol for posting it here for us, damn i love this website and everyone in it 

[Falkenbach]

Thanks for the warning. I've been thinking I've been drinking enough (up to 3 litres and more a day) but perhaps yesterday I got a bit slack.

My 9-day old transplant has been doing well, with my creatinine having reduced from 560 to 154. Today it is up to 166, and I was told to drink more water. Shows how easy it is.

I will definitely keep this in mind about simple stomach bugs, because my natural instinct would have been to ride it out and just drink extra. Now I will know to get to the emergency room and onto an IV.

[keefer51]

I think you get so used to fluid restrictions that when you are allowed to drink fluids you don't drink as much. My body and mind would see fluid and say no. Then i would remember that i could. I was so scared about putting on too much fluid. I got sick from something else after a week of my transplant. High fever. It took a week in the hospital. Everything turned out ok though.