How far can you live from a transplant center?

[WCoop]

My brother had a heart transplant and had to move near the hospital for a year. He lived 3 hours away originally. I see doctors at the same hospital (and the same distance). So I am curious if the rules are more relaxed for kidney transplants. There are two other centers that are 1 hour from me.

[SooMK]

My transplant center is 1-1/2 to 2 hours from my house. My awesome husband drove into NYC traffic for the transplant and the first couple of months of checkups. I take public transportation now to get to the clinic. I got the impression they were more concerned about how do-able it was. I had more than one doctor ask why I wasn't going to a much closer transplant center.

[cattlekid]

I am three hours from my transplant center.  I had to stay over the weekend after my transplant but was discharged from the hospital (had a clinic appointment on the following Monday due to delayed graft function). 

The hotel we stayed at had several heart transplant patients who were either waiting or recuperating afterwards.  The number of days they had been at the hotel was staggering.

[WCoop]

Thank you both for your responses. That's encouraging knowing people can live a distance from the hospital. Of course I'm thinking ahead anyway.

[coravh]

It  depends on the organ (in part  as to whether or not you have to stay near the hospital for long periods of time), and also what you are willing to put up with. I had my kidney tx, and then my pancreas, at a center that was a 2 hour direct flight from home. But they had newer procedures that I wanted, I was willing to be that far from home for a while, and they are more than happy to communicate by phone/fax/email, see me once per year, and let my local neph and endo handle most things except for the levels and doses of transplant drugs.

[WCoop]

It  depends on the organ (in part  as to whether or not you have to stay near the hospital for long periods of time), and also what you are willing to put up with. I had my kidney tx, and then my pancreas, at a center that was a 2 hour direct flight from home. But they had newer procedures that I wanted, I was willing to be that far from home for a while, and they are more than happy to communicate by phone/fax/email, see me once per year, and let my local neph and endo handle most things except for the levels and doses of transplant drugs.

Wow. That sounds like a real commitment, a 2 hour flight. How long did you have to stay close to the hospital after your transplant?

[McKay]

Hi!  My husband had his living donor kidney transplant in 1/15.  We live just under 2 hours from the trx. center.  He was in the hospital for 3 days, but I insisted we stay at a nearby hotel that weekend and throughout the next week for MWF clinics....because it would be ME driving in potentially bad weather!  Even though I'm a nurse,  I had never dealt with transplant, and I also wanted to be comfortable with labs, meds, surgical recovery, etc. before taking him home.  All went very well.  We made lots of trips for clinic visits in the weeks to follow, but we didn't mind AT ALL because we were always anxious for followups/reassurance.  We were also able to do some labs at our local hospital between visits - but there really can be variations in laboratories, so results can be a little confusing that way.  At the 6 month clinic, they said he didn't have to go back till one year,  with visits to his regular nephrologist in between.  He also monitors labs and meds. At 8 months out (he and donor are doing great!), he still has monthly labs, and now neph visit every 2 months. 

Hope that helps!  Best wishes!

[WCoop]

Thank you McKay that does help. It sounds like you had a good set up with having labs done locally. I'm glad he's doing so well.

[iketchum]

I live in Maine. The VA transplant center is in Pittsburg Pa. They were going to fly me and my wife back and forth for my checkups. I ended up going to the transplant center here in Maine, only 70 miles from home. On good days I drove my trike to the clinic. I am out post transplant a year and a half now and will be splitting my checkups between the Va and Portland now. The local Va is 28 miles from home.