Is moving to a different state an option after transplant?

[Deanne]

How difficult is it to move to a different state after a transplant? If you've done it, were the protocols at your new center similar to your previous center? What diffiulties did you run into? I get tempted sometimes to move to Arizona. I live in Oregon. My work team is mostly in Arizona and when I travel down there for work, I like being there. I start to get the bug to move about this time every year when it feel like winter is dragging on and spring fever hits. I don't have big plans to move. I just want to know if it's something that might be possible in the future, or if I should just quit even thinking about it.

[willowtreewren]

Good question.....

I want to know the answer, too. We are planning to move to Massachusetts after we retire in a couple years. I had checked out the clinics that did NxStage before the transplant, but it is a different story now.

 

[cariad]

Hmmm, it never would have even occurred to me to give up a basic freedom like moving to any location on earth just because of a transplant. It is as easy to move as a transplant patient as it is for anyone else (in other words, exhausting/overwhelming/hellish, but certainly not more so for your transplant status). Your transplant team should connect with you a local transplant clinic and/or nephrologist. I've heard that some transplant hospitals will not take on patients who were not transplanted with them. I have never run in to this issue, but then I've never lived in Arizona (nor Massachusetts, though I did go to prep school near Boston).

When my family moved a few years after my first transplant my original hospital continued to make all the decisions in my care. I honestly see this as one of the biggest mistakes my parents made in this ordeal. I had a local GP, no local nephrologist, and the GP supposedly had to clear everything with the transplant hospital. We were too far away to travel back there regularly and I strongly believe that you want to get an opinion on meds and other treatments from someone who has actually seen the person face-to-face. I have told my current center that not only will I be moving, it will most likely be out of the country. And I'm in a clinical trial paid for by the US government. They said great, let us know where and we will try to connect you with someone. Please return for your final appointments (the 30 and 36 month marks, and then I'm done!)

Deanne, if you are traveling to Arizona regularly, you might want to ask your Oregon hospital for the name of a good nephrologist in your area, in case you need urgent attention pre-transplant. Hopefully you'll never need this person, but if you do, you'll have a name and if you do move, you can look that person up. I have heard regular travelers sometimes connect with local nephrologists. I could never be bothered, but then could never be bothered is a phrase that will no doubt appear on my tombstone. Hope this helps! 

[wj13us]

I moved and it looks like I'll be moving again in a year or so.

Just move.  Yes you will  need a new "team" of doctors.  But doctors will come and go for different reasons even if you stay in the same spot.  I asked my doctor(s) if they had any referrals in the states I was moving.  In the end I just ended up finding doctors on my own.


Your body, your transplant your choice.  Don't let anyone tell you different.

Bill N

[Deanne]

Thanks everyone! It's nice to know it'll still be an option. I'm not moving now. I've been on the list in Oregon for about six months. The wait in Oregon is only 2-3 years. I don't remember what it is in Arizona, but I do remember it's much longer. I'm just daydreaming about "maybe, someday....."

[rsudock]

that is a good question...Aaron and I thought about moving to Arizona about 4 months ago, he had a job, and I was a bit against it because I just LOVE my doc...that really (besides my family) has held me back...

take care!!
xo,
R

[amanda100wilson]

Not sure why moving States should be a problem, as moving countries with a transplant and also being three months pregnantt, wasn't.  You just get your notes transferred.  They are not going to change your meds. or anything, unless there was a good justification for doing so.

[edersham]

I'm 2 years post transplant from Mayo Clinic Phoenix and spend about 8mos a year in Alaska and 4 in Arizona .  I go annually to Mayo for evaluation even though it's 200 miles from our house in Arizona. My regular neph is in Tucson but she treats  me mostly. Long distance with me getting labs at the hospital in Anchotage so a think quite a bit of freedom of movement after transplant is possible.

Ed