salena gomez

[robertscz]

anyone see the salena gomez interview this morning?  if not here it is https://www.today.com/health/selena-gomez-francia-ra-sa-share-story-behind-dramatic-kidney-t118147.  its about 6 minutes with her and her donor.  im not sure how i feel about some of the things that they talked about.  her donor said "because we were in a hurry to get her a kidney i got all my testing done in about a day".   my donor has been going for 2 months now and still not finished.  thats total BS if you ask me and thats just because they're famous.

 they also said they were on bed rest for many days afterwards, not able to do simple tasks like walk up stairs or put on their own underwear?  is this true for those of you that have had one? 

very interesting interview, i feel like they made it sound waaaaay worse than what i have heard and talked to others about.  thought?

[Simon Dog]

thats total BS if you ask me and thats just because they're famous.

That's the way the world works.  I'd bet they also got VIP treatment in the hospital - perhaps even a celebrity suite rather than a simple room, although the later depends more on money than fame.   Some hospitals have suites with a built in office, fax machine, and even an area for your personal security staff.

Ever notice how famous people never seem to die waiting for a liver?   Mantle, Moakley, Allman, Hagman, Jobs ... all got livers in time.  I wonder what the statistical chance of that happening to five unconnected and unimportant people is.

There was some research that suggested that celebrity status could compromise medical care, because MDs were overly deferential to what the patient wanted and less likely to assert their medical expertise and say "no", plus there was the tendency for the department head to treat VIPs, even when another attending was the best available specialist for the VIP's malady.














Sp mod Cas

[KarenInWA]

they also said they were on bed rest for many days afterwards, not able to do simple tasks like walk up stairs or put on their own underwear?  is this true for those of you that have had one? 

very interesting interview, i feel like they made it sound waaaaay worse than what i have heard and talked to others about.  thought?

Hello robertscz!

I had my transplant almost 6 years ago at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. Bed rest is not recommended for post-transplant surgery because walking helps you heal. I remember that being drilled in me. I took showers on my own and dressed myself - although not every patient is able to do that. But, I certainly would not put Selena Gomez in that the not-able-to-perform-simple-tasks crowd. My donor was 67 to my 38 at the time of donation, and her biggest thing was walking and getting better. She was lucky in that her only problem was a bad reaction to Demerol post-op.  She had never had surgery before so of course she didn't know how she was going to react to all the crazy drugs. My donor wanted to get our surgeries done in time so she could go on a big 2-week cruise 8 weeks later - and that she did. She had to deal with flight delays due to snow to get there, but by golly, she made it! She was told my our transplant team that she bounced back quicker than most of their younger donors.

I will need to watch this when I get a few minutes. For me, the whole transplant process was fairly easy. I am lucky in that I tend to heal from surgery well. I hope that continues!

KarenInWA

*Edited to add - I took showers by myself once I was home - in the hospital I had help from the nursing staff, since I had a bunch of stuff hooked up to me.

[smartcookie]

Selena had some complications from surgery.  Her donated kidney was trying to turn inside her, apparently.  I bet the bed rest was to make sure everything stayed in place.  As for the donor, I am not sure.  I do like the exposure this is giving transplants and Lupus, but I agree that it isn't right that someone could get all the testing done in a day just because she is famous.  At the end of the day, it is an inspiring story.  I would love to see Selena due charity work for the AKF or something. 

[iolaire]

her donor said "because we were in a hurry to get her a kidney i got all my testing done in about a day".   my donor has been going for 2 months now and still not finished.

I think some of it has to do with the hospital and the patient. I have no experience with donor testing but my testing seemed to go much faster than some experience.  Also I had zero concerns that resulted in additional testing, if you had things that they wanted another specialist to look into that could delay things by weeks to months.

When I was listed at INOVA they did my testing in one morning.  Here is was my schedule (I think this might have been after we met with the councilors, Finance, Dietitian, Social Worker etc. again that was in a single visit block of maybe 4 hours):
7/21/11
Do not have anything to eat, drink, smoke or chew from midnight the night before.  If you take blood pressure medicine you may take that with a sip of water (no other medications are allowed).
-Inova Heart and Vascular Institute (IHVI) ground floor, Fairfax Hospital
You are scheduled for a blood test at 7:30 a.m.  Next please go to the 1st floor, Radiology Department.
You are scheduled for a duplex Doppler and abdominal ultrasound at 8:30 a.m.  You may eat when these tests are completed.  Please then proceed to Cardiac Diagnostics (on the same floor) for an echocardiogram, EKG and chest x-ray at 12:30.


7/28/11
-IHVI
You are scheduled for a 1:30 blood test and a 2:00 appointment with the surgeon, Dr. Johnsson.

Please be sure to bring a photo ID and insurance card to every appointment and please arrive 15-30 minutes early

When I moved to GW I had to do additional testing and that was broken up over more days, not in a nice tight schedule like INOVA.

[Simon Dog]

I agree that it isn't right that someone could get all the testing done in a day just because she is famous.

It could also be because she had money and was paying for luxury, high margin, services - like a VIP suite instead of a standard room.

Charging extra for the deluxe accommodations (which don't change medical care, just make it a bit more tolerable) is one way big hospitals help cover the cost of all the deadbeats who show up in the ER, as well as us Medicare types who may only pay half (or less) of the insurance paid price.

Society insists on a socialistic/communistic allocation scheme.  Donors, and the next of kid of dead donors, cannot be paid which assures the system remains "fair" but also reduces the supply of transplantable organs.   Imagine what the housing or food stock would look like if everyone paid the same in order to keep the resource allocation system "fair".

Marxism (the original theory, not how it is actually practiced) was an attempt to make resource allocation fair using a "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" policy.   In reality, it might have been a bit more "fair" to someone on the lower end, however, the actual effect was to significantly reduce the productive output of nations.  Our organ allocation scheme does this same thing.   Imagine what it would do to the supply if the estate of a donor got even a modest $10K for every organ successfully transplanted.

[Xplantdad]

Robert,

Holly had her surgery on December 22nd in the early afternoon, was up and walking around on December 24th in the early am-and was discharged and walked to the car from the front door of the hospital on December 24th...Christmas eve!

[robertscz]

Robert,

Holly had her surgery on December 22nd in the early afternoon, was up and walking around on December 24th in the early am-and was discharged and walked to the car from the front door of the hospital on December 24th...Christmas eve!

that is awesome!!! and i think more in line with how things normally take place.  2 days is incredible, i hope that my body reacts that well and i get out of there quickly!!

[Xplantdad]

Robert,

Holly had her surgery on December 22nd in the early afternoon, was up and walking around on December 24th in the early am-and was discharged and walked to the car from the front door of the hospital on December 24th...Christmas eve!

that is awesome!!! and i think more in line with how things normally take place.  2 days is incredible, i hope that my body reacts that well and i get out of there quickly!!

Robert,
Being veteran (heart) transplant parents...even we were surprised as to how fast she was discharged. I think younger folks heal faster, too

[MooseMom]

Robert, I'm not "younger", but I had my tx on Sunday morning and was home by Wednesday afternoon.  I was lucky in that I had no co-morbidities nor any surgical complications.

I don't know about donor testing.  Perhaps Selena's donor was able to be cleared in a day because she's young and healthy.  Most tests don't take that long to complete; it's usually the scheduling with different healthcare providers that makes it all so time consuming.  My tx center is in another state, but I was allowed to have all of my testing done locally, which was great, but I had to make separate appointments with different consultants, ie a dentist, an imaging practice, a cardiologist, etc.  I was unable to do all of the tests in one place like iolaire.  Red tape everywhere!

[robertscz]

Robert, I'm not "younger", but I had my tx on Sunday morning and was home by Wednesday afternoon.  I was lucky in that I had no co-morbidities nor any surgical complications.

I don't know about donor testing.  Perhaps Selena's donor was able to be cleared in a day because she's young and healthy.  Most tests don't take that long to complete; it's usually the scheduling with different healthcare providers that makes it all so time consuming.  My tx center is in another state, but I was allowed to have all of my testing done locally, which was great, but I had to make separate appointments with different consultants, ie a dentist, an imaging practice, a cardiologist, etc.  I was unable to do all of the tests in one place like iolaire.  Red tape everywhere!

well i had all my testing done in one morning, all i had to do was an echo and an abdominal scan.  but my donor has been testing for over a month now, granted its been really spread out. she first did bloodwork to see if she was a match, then a urine test to check her kidneys, and this coming monday she is actually going to tampa for 2 days to get an ekg, chest xray, abdominal scan as well as the meetings w/surgeon, psychologist, ect.  hoping they go well and we can set up a date for the coming month. 

[MooseMom]

I'm hoping you get good news soon, Robert!