Transplant ques

[NurseRed]

Do they look at bmi phosphorus levels hgba1c levels before a transplant?

[Hidden]

They look at everything, I don’t know at what BMI you have to be before transplant I was on the lower weight side so had no complications but I would ask them what the range is and if you need to lower your weight.

[Hidden]

Most likely they will do EXTENSIVE labs during your evaluation. Both myself (recipient) and my wife (donor) had the same set of labs which number between 50-75 — approximately 15 vials of blood.

For recipients a high BMI can play a factor in getting on the list. However, it depends on which transplant center you go to. The University of Illinois, which does both traditional, open surgeries as well as robotic surgeries, approve candidates with BMIs well over 35. Mine was 36 at time of transplant. I would have been refused, until I lost weight, at other Chicago transplant centers. Both my wife and myself had Robotic surgeries which help with the healing time and complications (e.g infection). I wasn't too worried about the robotic surgery since one of the two surgeons was the "Father of Robotic Surgery." Both of us have main incisions of only 4 inches long. In traditional open transplants the incision is normally around 14 inches. I was extremely lucky/blessed

A1C is a big factor when it comes to approving a living donor. Initially, my wife's A1C was 6.4 — a tenth of a point shy of diabetes. She lost weight through diet/excercise and dropped it to 5.4 in about 7 months. In the meantime, UIC made her take the glucose tolerance test 4 times over that seven months as well as see an endocrinologist.

My only labs that were screwy at time of transplant (e.g. two days before) were a ver LOW potassium of 2.2 and triglycerides of 700. After transplant my potassium is normal. As far as phosphorus goes, my pre transplant level was about 5. Currently, it's low normal (2.5) so they want me to drink diet coke and other high phosphorous foods. I watched my phosphorus intake for the past two years (CKD stage 3b to 5). In should be noted, I was early on in dialysis (e.g about five weeks). I was bad right before surgery. Knowing I would get a kidney, I at Pizza and ice cream — neither of which are good for high phosphorus and triglycerides.

Anyway, my kidney evaluation started in January 8th 2020. Because of COVID most the evaluation was then spread out over the 8 months. I also had other diagnostics such as EKG, stress test, CTA scans (previously, I had stage 1 cancer), and X-rays. Everything turned out well!

[htpi1543 in reply to Hidden]

Shadowfax 001Thank you for very good information