Cora1003

Well, I'm not too sure where to start. Since I don't know what your concerns are, I'll give you some general information. The surgery itself, for both of them is not that bad. Your sister in law will not have too much scarring or too much tissue cut through. My cousin gave me a kidney and 2 days after the surgery she was doubled over in the sink in her room washing her hair! Your SIL will not be able to lift anything heavier than 10 pounds for at least 6 weeks. The good news about the laproscopy is that the recovery time from surgery will be shorter. She will still feel very tired for some time because it takes the remaining kidney some time to learn to pick up the slack.

The day before the surgery the 2 of them will receive another blood test to make sure that there will be no immediat reaction to the transplant. This is called a crossmatch and you want it to be negative (no reaction). Once that is cleared the transplant will proceed.

The child will have a large incision along the side of the abdomen and going a bit sideways. It's shaped a bit like a hockey stick (a common analogy used here in Canada - we all can picture it). The kidney is placed in the front and in the long term, because the kidney is not well protected there, the docs will say "No contact sports". While the surgery is harder, the child will definitely be feeling better, faster than his Mom. Very often the kidney starts functioning right away and this wil be better than dialysis was (if he was on dialysis). My kidney was damaged when it was put in and took a long time to recover but even by the end of the first day post surgery my creatinine level went from 7 to 2.

There will be some issues regarding anti-rejection meds. I don't know what they do for kids and how it will affect growth and development, but it is still better than dialysis.

Hope this helps.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Cora

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Cora
Dxd T1 1966, 2001 dialysis, 2002 kidney transplant, 2003 insulin pump, 2008 pancreas transplant