My husband has stage 4 CKD and liver cirrhosis and diabetes 2. Yesterday we had a meeting at the hospital with a professor from the transplant team in Birmingham. He has confirmed my husband needs a kidney and liver transplant due to uncontrollable hepatic encephalopathy If after all the health checks he is approved he will have a liver transplant first then dialysis then kidney transplant. Has anyone on here gone down the same road?
We are both so worried/scared any help/advice would be appreciated. Thank you xx
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Sorry no experience of similar but just want to wish you both all the best. Sounds like you are both facing a long and testing road ahead.It sounds like both transplants are very much needed with liver being the most urgent since it does so many 'essential for life' functions - at least with dialysis for the kidneys there is a means of aiding their function to keep them ticking along until a donor is found. At present there is no such alternative for liver.
Finding a suitable multi organ donor for it all to happen at one go would be nigh on impossible. Liver only has to match blood group and size - kidneys have to be tissue matched too so they obviously hope to get liver done then dialysis to help keep kidneys going until a donor can be found for that op.
I wish you all the best and hope all goes to plan.
I suspect that the problem here is going to be with the anti-rejection medication. Following a liver transplant, all organ transplants patients are put on high doses of anti-rejection medication to stop the immune system from attacking the new organ.
After about six months this dosage is slowly reduced. When I had my liver transplant I was on 10 different medications for not only my liver but also my diabetes. Some of these anti-rejection medications can cause kidney damage, so if the kidneys are already struggling, this would have to be factored in before a liver transplant was considered.
I had my liver transplant carried out at the QE back in 2016 and they have now completed over 6000 liver transplants, so your husband is in good hands.
I wish you both well and hope everything goes well for you both.
Thank you Richard I thought y the ant rejection medication might be a factor with doing one transplant at a time. The main concern at the minute is the hepatic encephalopathy which keeps reoccurring despite the meds including lactulose which they keep increasing. The only way to stop this is the transplant. Just hope he will be able to have the transplant
Hi, if you use Facebook please feel free to join our friendly and knowledgeable Facebook group called liver transplant support uk, there are several people that have had both liver and kidney transplants usually at the same time and will be able to advise you.Hilary xx
I am not a medical person but one from everyday life. I can only send my sincere wishes to you both and I am sure there will be a positive outcome. Regards and thoughts to you and your family. Take care. x
I had my liver transplant at the QE May 2020. You are in the best hands possible. If you saw Prof P, he knows what he is doing. Wishing you the best of luck. C
I had a liver transplant almost 7 years ago. My kidneys were already damaged, had to be on dialysis for a short time until they came back at about 60%. I'm currently ckd early stage 4, but stable for over a year now. I would be happy to chat if you'd like. I'll answer as best I can from my experience.
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