Scheduling your transplant
Before you undergo a transplant, we evaluate whether you're an appropriate candidate. Your first clinic visit will begin in the morning with a short orientation and proceed throughout the day. In this first visit, you will be seen by many of the professionals on our transplant team, including a transplant nephrologist, transplant surgeon, social worker, financial coordinator, transplant pharmacist, and dietician.
After your first clinic visit, our transplant team will clearly understand how to proceed with your transplant workup.
A majority of our patients will need additional testing to determine their suitability for transplant surgery. Some tests can be done during your initial visit; others can be done at your local hospital.
Testing & Evaluation
Next, we'll need to perform several pre-transplant tests that will help us determine your overall health status and identify potential problems before they occur. These tests also help us determine if transplantation is your best option.
Joining the waiting list
After completing your testing, your case is presented in a multidisciplinary selection meeting. Your options are discussed by surgeons, nephrologists, nurses, financial coordinators, social workers, and nutritionists. From here, a majority of patients are placed on the waiting list for a cadaveric pancreas donation.
When it is time for surgery
When a donor pancreas becomes available, the coordinator will call you to get ready. Since this call could come at any time during the day or night, the transplant team should be able to reach you whether you are at home, at school, at work, or on vacation.
Please provide our transplant team with the phone numbers of family members and close friends. Do everything you can to make sure you can be contacted immediately.
When the Phone Call Comes
When that phone call comes, everything will seem like a blur. The coordinator will advise you when to be present at the transplant center. You must move quickly and get to the transplant center without delay. When a pancreas becomes available, there is a time limit!
At the Hospital
After admission, you will have a thorough physical examination, including more blood work, a chest x-ray, an EKG, dialysis, and possibly other tests. Unfortunately, surgery must be postponed in some cases. You will be sent home if:
You have an infection or have developed any other medical problem that would interfere with surgery or recovery
The donor pancreas shows signs of deterioration or poor function
If surgery is postponed, the transplant team can help you through the disappointment. This is only a temporary setback, and the search for a new pancreas will continue.
During your transplant surgery
Before entering the operating room, your anesthesiologist will review your medical history. Once they have completed this review, they will give you some medicine to help you relax. You will then be taken into the operating room. Once you're asleep, special I.V.s will be placed to help monitor your status during the surgery. This process takes between 30 and 60 minutes.
After everything has been properly prepared, your surgeon will begin your surgery. The surgery usually lasts between 2 and 3 hours. The surgery is generally performed through an incision close to your hip bone, measuring between 6 and 12 inches in length, depending on your size and the size of the kidney.
You should be ready to leave the hospital and head home within a few days after surgery. You will receive a schedule of follow-up clinic visits for lab tests and checkups. At these visits, your doctors will track your progress and detect potential complications as early as possible.
You should bring your medication list and surgery handbook to all follow-up visits. You will be given specific instructions for routine lab work or special tests that you might need.
Taking Care of Your New Kidney
The most important aspects of post-transplant care are listening to your doctors and taking your immuno-suppression medications, which you’ll need to take for the rest of your life. This medication greatly decreases the chance of rejection episodes, in which your immune system attacks the new kidney.
Modern medical advances — including immunosuppressant drugs that prevent rejection of the new kidney — make kidney transplant complications less common. Patient and organ survival rates are high, and life expectancy rates are reasonable. Intermountain's Transplant Center team is knowledgeable and experienced. Our expertise, paired with your diligent efforts to care for your new kidney, increases your likelihood of returning to everyday life.
Signs of Infection and Rejection
The primary concerns for your new kidney involve infection and rejection. Your local physician can handle many problems, such as colds or flu, adjustment of your medications, and minor diseases. Learn to watch for signs of illness and rejection that necessitate notifying a local physician or transplant team immediately:
Fever that continues for more than two days
Shortness of breath
Cough that produces a yellowish or greenish substance
Dry cough that continues for more than one week
Prolonged nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea
Inability to take prescribed medication Rash or other skin changes
Vaginal discharge or itching
Burning discomfort with urination
Exposure to mumps, measles, chicken pox, or shingles
Unusual weakness or light-headedness
Emergency-room treatment or hospitalization
Pain, redness, tenderness, or swelling at the incision siteFluid retention/weight gain (2 lbs. in 24 hours)
Decrease in urine output
Pain or burning during urination
Blood in the urine
A strong odor to the urine
Feeling an urgent need to urinate or need to urinate frequently
Team Utah - Idaho
Once you're well enough, we invite you to join Team Utah Idaho in the Transplant Games of America. The team comprises transplant recipients and living donors of all organs from throughout Utah and Idaho. Team members have ranged in age from 3 to 70. Grateful athletes with new hearts, kidneys, livers, lungs, and pancreas participate in strenuous athletic events to celebrate a new life and prove that organ donation brings a total return to good health.