What is ok and not ok?

[Tracy]

Hi,
I was laying out in my backyard this past weekend, trying to get a little sunshine and I was thinking, Is it ok to get sun if you are in ESRD?  Will it hurt the fistula?  Will it make me sick or something?  Does anyone know?  I did try to search this topic, but didn't find anything.  I am on the transplant list and I know a doctor along this way has said once you get a transplant and are on all the meds, you cannot layout in the sun.  Not sure why, I figured maybe the meds would react with the sun or something.  Does anyone know?

Thanks!  Tracy

[billybags]

Tracy get out in the sunshine as much as you can, think vit d it is good for you as long as you have plenty of sun screen on.I have heard that when you get transplanted sun shine is a no no unless you cover up and use factor 50, some thing to do with the meds but some one else on here who has been transplanted will tell you why. I love the sun.

[MooseMom]

Immunosuppressants make you run a bigger risk of skin cancer, so sunbathing just exacerbates that risk.  ESRD in and of itself doesn't make sunbathing more dangerous.  But sunbathing isn't smart even at the best of times.  You can enjoy the sun when you use sunscreens or coverup clothing.

[paris]

MooseMom is right. The anti-rejection meds increase the chance for cancer.  You just need to be careful.  Enjoy the sun now.  It does feel good to have the sun shining on your face   

[Rerun]

When you are on the anti-rejection drugs they make you really sensitive to the sun.  So, if you use to tan in 30 minutes you may burn in 10 minutes.  I don't avoid regular sun, but I use 60sfp on my face and arms.  AND I don't lay out anymore.  I'll sit in the shade and let my legs out to get sun.  Even though I don't have my transplant anymore my skin has changed and I have to be careful and soap up with sun screen.

         

[monrein]

I'm post transplant and avoid the direct sun at all times.  I'm a big gardener, out there for many hours on end but I wear long sleeves, big hat, sunscreen, gloves...you get the picture.  I also see a dermatologist every year or so to be thoroughly checked for little growths and have each and every one removed and checked out.  We are at higher risk, much higher risk, for cancers with the anti-rejection drugs and if one is very fair, as I am, it only makes sense to be careful.  I'm extra cautious since my Mum died of melanoma at 46 and our next door neighbour in Jamaica also died of melanoma at 50...he was also very blond and fair-skinned...those were the days before sunscreen use and my Mum never wore a hat.
Prednisone can also make us extremely sensitive to the sun.

[RichardMEL]

Pre-transplant Tracy get out there, slip on the bikini and get the rays baby. The vitamin D probably won't be absorbed as well, but it isn't bad for you per se (well not any worse than for a regular person I mean). Shouldn't harm the fistula or anything. I walk every day in the sun in short sleaves, and my fistula area is a little tanned, and so far so good.

If you get a transplant, that's a whole other matter and you definitely need to do as we say down here: slip, slop, slap! (slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen, slap on a hat - before you all think I'm being rude & crude  ). As others have said, immunosupression drugs make you must more sensitive to the sun and skin cancers, so you need to be careful in that respect.

For now though, sun it up - but obviously use sunscreen etc and be mindful of the sun as per normal.

[Tracy]

Well, thank you all for the response.  I do feel more at ease now.  It is straight now in my mind.  I love the slip, slap, slop idea!  Funny!  I LOL here at the office. 

Thank you!   

[RichardMEL]

here's an ad from the 80's we grew up with all about it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7juelCXC1-k

and an updated version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzYHwzSE1VY

and here's a kiwi version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Sh9ZF-UxMw&feature=related

I prefer the 80's, but then again I was a teenager then and I wasn't diagnosed, so I definitely preferred those years! 

[RightSide]

Before getting a transplant, the UV rays from the sun are actually good for you (in moderation).  There is evidence that UV light can cause chemical changes in the skin that reduce the itching that plagues so many of us ESRD patients. 

After a transplant, that's a whole other story.  With a functioning kidney, the itching will go away.  And UV light is dangerous for the reasons others have already mentioned.

[natnnnat]

I had a friend who had a kidney transplant years ago, and even though he was very careful with the sun, with hats, with sunglasses and skin cream, he got a skin cancer on his eyelid.  He had it removed in various ways for a few years, lost his eyelashes, etc.  Then in 2004, or was it 2005, they found it was still there, and was travelling along a nerve.  So they removed his eye.  But it still came back.  He lost his nose, and his other eye closed up :-( sorry this is pretty nasty.  Evenually this dear friend died just last year, I am not sure exactly what the cause of death was because I suppose you can't be said to have died "of skin cancer".  I didn't get the medical low-down properly at the time. 

But this was all still going on when I met my husband Gregory, with his faded fistula and kidney transplant scars.  I immediately  noticed scabby lumps on his head, and marched him back to his gp to get the referral to the skin specialist. They spent a year or so faffing around with some kind of laser treatment, burning the skin off?  And then finally a plastic surgeon removed like a tile off the side of his head.   He hates his tile but I love it, it is clear skin instead of skin cancer, which is really horrible, smelly (!) and scary stuff. 

The oncology people said the damage from the skin cancer could date back, even before his transplant.  He is very careful with hats and so forth... and a little bit of sun is, as commented above, really health giving and good.  But be really really careful with sunburn I reckon.  If you are likely to get a transplant in the future, that is.  I guess sunburn is a big issue here in Australia, and people have been pretty blase about it a lot of the time.  I used to love basting myself in coconut oil, deary me, and roast myself in Darwin, which is about as close to the equator as you can get in Australia.  James (my friend) lived in Brisbane, where the sun is also very strong. 

RichardMel, your youtube clips got me humming away, I love that lisping slip slop slap song.  Especially, protect your head.  That's my poorly expressed  worth.

[KICKSTART]

SUN? ? ? whats that ? 

[Darthvadar]

SUN? ? ? whats that ? 

I'm told, and I'm fairly sure of my source KS, that the sun is that big yellow thing in the sky that we West Europeans only get to see once in a very blue moon!!!!....

Love....

Darth....

[natnnnat]

Sun seems to be obsessed with itself here in Australia.  I got excited over a bit of torrential rain lately, decided to buy an umbrella.  Couldn't choose between the massive rainbow one and the dainty one in latte colours with the frilly edging.  So I bought both!  Its a special day, and I wanted to celebrate!  Went home carrying three umbrellas, those two and the one I inherited from my grandmother, with the monet reproduction on it. 
Not a drop of rain.  Clouds clearing.  And, yup:  sun. 
Never mind, I'm one of those geeky girls who carry parasols too.

[MooseMom]

I remember that one year while I was living in the UK, it rained every day from October to May.  Every day.  There was a church at the bottom of the road that had a glass-paned sign outside outlining the details of the service that Sunday, and one day I noticed that the sign had little mushrooms growing inside of it.  But there are few things more enchanting than an English summer's day...when the sun is out.