Down a Kidney, Running a 10K

What a fantastic story! I always love stories where a family member donates a kidney to another because I, myself also received a kidney from a family member, my sister. The experience has brought us closer together and provided a better quality of life for both of us. I’m am both grateful and glad that she was there in my time of need.

Staying Healthy

For Terence Hickey, 27, the hardest part of donating a kidney was staying off his feet.

“The process itself wasn’t as grueling as I thought it would be, but being so active, it is tough staying in bed,” he said.

On May 30th, Terence will run the UAE Healthy Kidney 10K with his mother, Nora. It’s an amazing feat considering he donated a kidney to his father John less than two months ago.

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Monthly Lab Draw – May 2015

As a new kidney transplant patient, my doctor recommended that I follow up with him at the clinic at least once every 6 month. Now, I’ve already gone through the daily, weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly followup routine and have progressed well enough to do just once every 6 month but the ultimate goal is to follow up only once a year.  Within the time of the next visit to now, he has given me an open lab order that allows me to go to Quest Diagnostics to have my blood chemistry drawn to make sure that’s it’s within the acceptable range.  The blood results which is faxed directly to the MD’s office includes: CBC, CMP, Lipid Profile, and Tacrolimus level.  These level will tell whether my Creatinine, BUN, Hemoglobin, Cholesterol, Potassium, GFR. and Sodium levels are within the kidney’s functional range.

Unfortunately, my cholesterol is a bit high so my Doc will prescribe some meds (statins) to help control it.  Otherwise, all my level seems to be normal. Time to  hit the gym and cut back on my Honey bran Muffins!

Sample cmp result’s normal range (These are not my results)

Top 10 Kidney Transplant Centers for Living Donor Transplants

One of the most difficult and important decisions you’ll make is to decide which hospital to be placed on the transplant list and ultimately the new kidney from.  Although you can be on the list from multiple hospitals from within the same state, it’s important to consider the travel time to the facility, the capabilities of the staff, and the reputation of the facility.  Here is a list of the top 10 Kidney Transplant Centers provided by the National Kidney Registry.

If you don’t see your hospital listed here, don’t worry.  There are other hospital that’s not listed here that also have excellent facility and capable staff.  Take me for example, I received my transplant from Florida Hospital located in Orlando, FL and I was impressed with their friendly, knowledgeable staff, clean facility, and convenient location.  Although my hospital was not listed below, I’m still very happy with getting the transplant from them.

Rank          Center Name                                                                 State

1                   UCLA Medical Center                                                     CA

2                   UCSF medical Center                                                     CA

3                   Emory Transplant Center                                               GA

4                   New York Presbyterian-Weill Conrnell Transplant          NY

5                   University of Maryland Medical Center                           MD

6                   University of Wisconsin, Madison                                   WI

7                   Cleveland Clinic                                                              OH

8                   Saint Barnabas Medical Center                                      NJ

9                   Sharp Memorial Hospital Kidney Transplant                  CA

10                 Mount Sinai Medical Center                                           NY

For a complete list, click here

First Post is the best post

Who I am and why I started writing:

Welcome to KidneyTransplantPatient.com.

My name is Greg and I’ll be your author/consultant/confidante to help answer your questions about kidney transplantation.  As a multiple transplantee myself, I have been through pain, discomfort, tears, joys, and celebration of waiting and receiving a kidney.  I hope that I can share with you my journey through life so that you too can learn from my experiences to make your life easier.  I am a son, a husband, a brother, a writer, a programmer, and a stock trader, but by no means am I a medical professional.  Please keep this in mind and consult with a physician and use your own best judgement before deciding on making any major changes that’ll affect your health and well being.

I created this site to help educate patients and their family members about kidney/renal disease, treatment options, and the latest research developments.  I have been blessed with a loving family who has supported me through the three kidney transplantations that I have gone through and shown me how important a good support system is for a successful rehabilitation process.  This is why I created this website so that I can share with you the experiences of my life in hopes that you too can use this in your own journey through this sometime difficult yet educational process.

As I continue my blog, I will share with you the experiences of each different types of transplant options, its pros and cons and hope that you can garner some useful information and apply it in your own life and so that it can make it easier for you and your loved ones as you conquer and manage this devastating disease..

Some information that I’ll be sharing on this website:

• Dialysis options
• Transplant options
• Latest report, research, and statistics related to kidney transplants
• Diet and exercise for post and pre transplant patients
• Common transplant meds its info (formulary)
• Insurance (private, Medicare, and Medicaid)
• Family life
• School life
• and other misc info related to kidney health