Rabid-Noob

I would be reluctant telling people that as long as you always take your medications and never develop any other health problems you will avoid rejection/failure. Kidney transplants very much have life expectancies. About 8-12 years for a deceased donor and around 20 for a living donor on average. I’m going into year 8 of a deceased donor and just like that a year ago I went from an almost impossibly perfect case to suddenly rejecting my transplant with two types of rejection. I have always been healthy, never smoked, drank maybe 2-3 times a year, had an active job that was good for keeping me fit, and would maybe miss one dose of medications two or three times a year.

I’m not saying long lasting transplants like yours are impossible. In fact one of my doctors has a patient who last I knew was going on 35 years with theirs. But they had the perfect scenario like you; living donor, relative, and an excellent match up. I just feel getting people’s hopes up by telling them that as long as you do all of this you’ll have no worries isn’t the best. When my rejection was first noticed I kept asking my doctors what I possibly could have done wrong so suddenly and they reassured me that it just happens sometimes.

But on a more positive note it’s amazing to hear about how well yours has been!

I know it’s what your doctor told and it was probably in the context of your particular case. But I’ve learned that people like to latch to that best case scenario and treat it as what to expect. An older gentleman who used to sit next to me in dialysis was crushed when he didn’t get a transplant a year after being put on the list after seeing me get two calls for possible transplants within a year of myself being placed on the list. This was despite the clear differences in our cases. I was in my mid twenties and he in his late sixties, kidney disease was my only health issue and he had multiple health issues including diabetes.