Info needed on the procedure itself.

[Des]

How long did the operation take?

For a live donor. - did you and the donor go in at the same time?

When you come out of theatre do they put you in ICU with the rest of the people or in isolation?

How long are you in ICU / Highcare?

Do they put the new kidney in on the left or right? (I know it goes in the lower abdominal front area)

How long is the cut?

Do you need someone to care for you at home?


Sorry for all the questions - lots more to come. 

[edersham]

My operation took 3 hours , the  donor about 2. We were in pre-op together.  I woke up feeling instantly better than in 8 mo. I spent the first day in a room that was sort  of  an intermediate step between regular and icu and then 2 days in a regular room. My new kidney is on the right and down low and the cut is about 10 inches long and the scar is like a giant centipede(I don't care). My donor was done laproscopically.  You need someone at home because you wont be driving or lifting for several weeks and there are many return visits for labs and tests.

Ed

[Sugarlump]

Bear in mind not everybody heals the same or kidney settles in the same, some people take longer to bounce back than others. One person can be right as rain within 3-4 weeks, another 3-4 months. Prepare to be surprised by the ups and downs of a kidney transplant and the emotional stuff can hit you like a bus afterwards. Good luck!

[okarol]

How long did the operation take? About 4 hours (although part was in recovery so I don't really know.)

For a live donor. - did you and the donor go in at the same time? The donor went in at 5 AM and Jenna at 8 AM.

When you come out of theatre do they put you in ICU with the rest of the people or in isolation? Jenna was in ICU for 24 hours. Then 2 days in hospital after that.

How long are you in ICU / Highcare? see above

Do they put the new kidney in on the left or right? (I know it goes in the lower abdominal front area) They removed the living donor's left kidney and put it in front, on Jenna's right.

How long is the cut? Jenna had a 5 inch incision, no staples, only glue, no bandages.

Do you need someone to care for you at home? I helped Jenna weigh herself, take her BP and reminded her to take meds the first couple weeks, and drove her back and forth for clinic check-ups, 3 times a week for the first 2 weeks, then twice a week for 4 weeks (I think.) Also helped with her food, fresh, washed, well cooked.

[monrein]

How long did the operation take?  About three hours

For a live donor. - did you and the donor go in at the same time? I was admitted the night before, my donor went in at 6:oo am

When you come out of theatre do they put you in ICU with the rest of the people or in isolation?  I don't know...drugs were good...but I'm pretty sure I was isolated

How long are you in ICU / Highcare?  Two days I think..day three I was in my own room on the transplant floor.  Came home on day 8

Do they put the new kidney in on the left or right? (I know it goes in the lower abdominal front area)  My first trx went in on the right, my second on the left...the right was taken already.  First trx was removed 2 months after second since it didn't appreciate company.

How long is the cut? About 5 inches...I have a matching pair with a 3 inch long one in the middle from an appendectomy when I was 13

Do you need someone to care for you at home?  It was nice to have but I did pretty much everything on my own and felt pretty good except for when failed trx # 1 started acting silly.  I always try to do my own care since living with a chronic thing can take a toll on those around.  When I really need it though I'll ask for help.  My husband tends to hover which can make me a bit nuts.

[sgcline]

How long did the operation take?  Mine was 6 1/2 hours - they had some problems

For a live donor. - did you and the donor go in at the same time?  We were in pre-op together.  My sister surgery started at 9:00am, mine started at 10:00am

When you come out of theatre do they put you in ICU with the rest of the people or in isolation?  I went into a regular room straight from recovery.  No ICU and no isolation.  I was in the transplant wing.

How long are you in ICU / Highcare?  no ICU

Do they put the new kidney in on the left or right? (I know it goes in the lower abdominal front area)  They took my sisters right kidney out, flipped it over and put it on my left front side.

How long is the cut?  10 - 11 inches - I keep meaning to measure it. 

Do you need someone to care for you at home? Yes.  Lots of meds to learn.  I was very slow moving, walking getting up and down.  Sometimes my husband had to help me get up.  He also had to help me with my shower.

[willowtreewren]

Des, you know that Carl had his transplant just a bit over a month ago. So here are my answers:

How long did the operation take? Carl was in pre-op for 1 hour, theater for 2 hours and recovery for 2 hours. He then went to his room in an isolated transplant wing of the hospital.

For a live donor. - did you and the donor go in at the same time?

When you come out of theatre do they put you in ICU with the rest of the people or in isolation? Our transplant center has a special wing with limited access...visitors must scrub and cannot enter if not healthy.

How long are you in ICU / Highcare? Carl's procedure was Thursday evening and he was released form the hospital on MOnday afternoon. He was assigned one nurse to car for him the first 24 hours. She had no other duties. Then standard care.

Do they put the new kidney in on the left or right? (I know it goes in the lower abdominal front area) Carl's went on the right.

How long is the cut? Carl's was about 6.5 inches

Do you need someone to care for you at home? Carl got up walking as soon as he was able, but he had very little pain except for the gas....Every time he walked, he went farther. Walking is the BEST exercise for recovering. By Sunday, he was walking a total of 2 miles (in shorter segments over the day). He was able to completely care for himself once he left the hospital. I went back to work and left him at home!

But each person is different. Carl was very fit when he went in for the procedure. He is less fit now since he is still under lifting restrictions. but nearly all the swelling is gone and he can fit into most of his clothes now.

I'm hoping that everything goes tip top for you! 

Aleta

[rsudock]

Great questions Des! Also Monrein what symptoms surfaced when the first transplant started "acting up"? I was wondering if they would take out my first transplant or just leave it in with the 2nd operation. Did anyone have their first failed transplant removed before a next transplant?

Thanks everyone!
xo,
R

[Des]

Thanks everyone.

WOW lots of information. The only thing I am truly certain of is no 2 transplants are alike. 

Please feel free to give me any other information that you think I would find helpfull.

[Des]

Do you need someone to care for you at home? Carl got up walking as soon as he was able, but he had very little pain except for the gas....Every time he walked, he went farther. 

  So he is light on GAS because he can go further and further on it. sorry, couldn't help myself.

[Des]

Come on RM I need your info too.!

[monrein]

Great questions Des! Also Monrein what symptoms surfaced when the first transplant started "acting up"? I was wondering if they would take out my first transplant or just leave it in with the 2nd operation. Did anyone have their first failed transplant removed before a next transplant?

Thanks everyone!
xo,
R

They had planned to leave it in and it stayed in for 2 months but I was having mild fevers and pain the the area of that trx.  They thought it was diverticulitis infection at first or an ovarian cyst or this or that but eventually we discovered that that trx was not being properly supplied with blood so we decided to remove it and hope that that would be the answer.  Turned out it was and things have gone smoothly since.

[Sugarlump]

That's interesting. When they removed the transplanted kidney did they use the same incision or a different one? i.e. Can they do that keyhole to remove it???

[monrein]

That's interesting. When they removed the transplanted kidney did they use the same incision or a different one? i.e. Can they do that keyhole to remove it???

They used the same incision, just cut back along the dotted line.  I suppose they might have been able to do keyhole but we wanted to see what was what in there and also I prefer less time under anesthetic which apparently is the case if the surgery is open.

It's interesting to me that despite all my lower belly scars, (three total) I do a lot of abdominal work in yoga and pilates as well as crunches etc and the muscles seem to be quite strong.  I'm sure it's not the same as if I'd never been slit open so often but I hold my own.  My upper abs are particularly strong but they've never been tampered with.

[sgcline]

My doctor told me 90% of your muscles grow back in the first week.  The other 10% "takes forever".  I thought that was very interesting.  Once the swelling goes down, you will feel much better and be able to move around more.

I agree...a transplant is very different for everyone.

[willowtreewren]

So he is light on GAS because he can go further and further on it. sorry, couldn't help myself.

OH, Des, I guess I set myself up for that one! 

[lawphi]

in re: graft removals:

Hammett's first kidney clotted after 24 hours and was removed immediately.  it was suspected that his second failed graft was leaking blood and elevating his potassium, but his surgeon does not want to remove it unless it became life threatening.  His body did not react well to his splenectomy and created a lot of scare tissue.  His body is breaking down the kidney and it most likely will atrophy significantly. 

My good friend had his first graft removed after about six months.  He immediately felt better.

[RightSide]

My operation took about 2 hours, according to the surgeon who performed it.  The incision appears to be about 14 cm long, on my right side.

After the anesthesia wore off, I woke up in a bed inside the Transplant Unit of the hospital.  This unit is isolated from the rest of the hospital to prevent the spread of infection to the transplant recipients. I was ready to be discharged after 4 days--I showered and got ready to leave.  But as luck would have it, that would have meant I would be discharged on Sunday--and they couldn't get me the anti-rejection meds from the pharmacy on a Sunday.  So I stayed over one more night till the pharmacy delivered my anti-rejection meds on Monday morning.  I walked out of the hospital under my own power.

I live alone, in the Massachusetts suburbs, where mass transit is poor to non-existent.  So for the first six weeks of recovery, not being able to drive a car or even carry heavy bags of groceries from the supermarket was a real problem for me.  (I posted on that once before.)  Plus, we had numerous snowstorms when my car was buried under snow--and I couldn't shovel snow either, due to my surgery.

The social worker at my dialysis clinic had pointed me to a professional caregiver service, Visiting Angels, to assign me caregivers to handle these and other routine chores--until my surgery had fully healed.  They're not cheap, but they did a good job taking care of me.  They know at least first aid and CPR (one assigned to me was a former experienced EMT).   I was glad to have that support, because in the past I've had surgeries go bad after I was discharged from the hospital. Fortunately, that didn't happen this time.

The caregivers also had to help me with one other chore:  When I had gotten the call, I drove myself to the hospital in my own car, which I parked in the hospital garage.  But I couldn't drive my car home after the surgery.  So one of the caregivers met me at the Transplant Unit and drove me home in my own car.

[Des]

Ready in 4 days to go home.?

I thought it would be longer in hospital. After my nephrectomy I was in hospital for 7 days.

THAT IS GREAT NEWS.

[willowtreewren]

Yes, Carl was only in the hospital for 4 nights and he, too, walked out under his own power!

 

[RightSide]

Ready in 4 days to go home.?

I thought it would be longer in hospital. After my nephrectomy I was in hospital for 7 days.

THAT IS GREAT NEWS.

In general, I would imagine that surgeries that take things out (like nephrectomies and mastectomies) are worse than surgeries that put things in (like kidney transplants and breast implants).

Also, it depends on whether there are any unexpected complications, and what your general state of health is too.

In hospital, I had a semi-private room.  My roommate also had a kidney transplant--but he had much more trouble than I did.  To begin with, he had a severe reaction to the anesthesia for the procedure, and they couldn't even do the procedure until they had treated that.  (Instead of the anesthesia making him unconscious, it made him freak out.)  Secondly, he had a number of other health conditions (like COPD) which complicated his recovery.  So they kept him under observation for nearly two weeks before they discharged him.

One piece of advice, based on my own post-operative experience:

If you have friends or family visit you in the hospital, ask them to bring you lots and lots of prune juice.  The biggest single problem I had was constipation.  The nurses told me that's a common complaint, since you can't do much exercise, you're on a liquid diet the first couple of days, and the opiate pain meds are constipating too.

[Jie]

I was in the hospital for 4 nights and my donor for 2 nights. I went for about one hour a day average when I was in the hospital. I felt a lot better in the hospital than the first week out of hospital.

[miket]

How long did the operation take? About 6 hours with ICU time.

For a live donor. - did you and the donor go in at the same time? She went in two hours before me.

When you come out of theatre do they put you in ICU with the rest of the people or in isolation? ICU with the rest of the people.

How long are you in ICU / Highcare? For a few hours and then in the hospital transplant floor for 5 days.

Do they put the new kidney in on the left or right? (I know it goes in the lower abdominal front area) Right.

How long is the cut? 8 inches or so.

Do you need someone to care for you at home? Yes.

[mcclane]

How long did the operation take?

Donor - about 3-4 hours
recipient - about the same time

For a live donor. - did you and the donor go in at the same time?

No.  They wheeled my mom in first, at 7:30 am in the morning.  At about 9:30 am, they wheeled me in.  I would guess-timate that I wasn't in the surgery room until 10 am ish.

When you come out of theatre do they put you in ICU with the rest of the people or in isolation?

I was wheeled into a 'recovery' area, it isn't an isolation nor icu, it is an open area where the nurses can monitor you constantly

How long are you in ICU / Highcare?

zero, after about an hour or so in the recovery area, they wheeled me back to my room.

Do they put the new kidney in on the left or right? (I know it goes in the lower abdominal front area)

Since I already had a transplanted kidney on the right side, they stuck the new one in the left side (near the genital area)

How long is the cut?

20 cms

Do you need someone to care for you at home?

No, but my wife took 2 weeks family illness so she cared for me for about a week (1 week while i was in the hospital, 1 week at home).  I'm pretty much self sufficient at this point.

[Wenchie58]

How long did the operation take? About 6 hours

For a live donor.

When you come out of theatre do they put you in ICU with the rest of the people or in isolation? My hospital puts tx patients in the burn unit post surgery.

How long are you in ICU / Highcare? Two days

Do they put the new kidney in on the left or right? (I know it goes in the lower abdominal front area) Left

How long is the cut? 10 inches

Do you need someone to care for you at home? No, I did everything for myself, I just did it much much slower for awhile.  Couldnt drive for 4 weeks, so needed a chauffer for doc visits.