Followup and Living with a Transplant

In the first month after kidney transplant, you will be asked to follow up with the Transplant Clinic twice per week for that first month, once a week for the next month, and down to once every two weeks for the following month.  You will need to present yourself to the Laboratory in order to have fasting blood drawn for immunosuppression levels at 7am on the days you are attending Clinic.

Six weeks after your transplant, you will see your Transplant Surgeon in Clinic where you will undergo cystoscopy.  This is a procedure in which anesthetic jelly is placed in the urethra while you are awake, and a very small camera on a catheter is inserted up the urethra, into the bladder at which time the bladder is examined, and the previously placed stent is removed.  The whole procedure takes about 15 minutes, with the scope in the body for only 2 minutes or so.  After cystoscopy, you may have some blood in the urine and some frequency and urgency for the next few days, which should settle on its own.  You can view an example of the procedure here.

At the end of your 3 months Transplant Center Followup, you will be discharged to your own Nephrologist for ongoing care with the Transplant Team always ready to provide consultation and care as required.  Routine followup is protocolized and all of the testing is registered, and new results flagged, in a central database such that the Transplant Team is able to provide ongoing review.

If you are located in a Center or City where there is relatively little experience with transplant patients, be sure to let your attending physicians and other healthcare providers know that your primary Transplant Center is a resource to be used anytime.  This is especially so if you are undergoing future surgery or other procedures or begin taking new medications which may interfere with the kidney transplant structure or function.