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Signs & Symptoms That Your Body is Rejecting Your Transplanted Kidney or Heart

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A person living with a transplanted organ can live a healthy and normal life.

However, to increase your chances of long-term success, experts say that immunosuppressants (anti-rejection medications) must be taken every day as directed.1

“A transplanted organ is seen as a foreign object—or an ‘unwelcome visitor’—by your body,” says Nikhil Agrawal, MD, a nephrologist with Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston. “That is why your body’s immune system works hard to react against—or ‘reject’—the transplanted organ. Immunosuppressants suppress your body’s immune system and prevent rejection.”

The signs and symptoms of rejection could differ based on your transplanted organ. Below are a few things to look out for if you are a kidney- or heart-transplant recipient.

Read the full article, here.

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Managing Anxiety as a Transplant Patient in a COVID-19 World

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Transplant recipients never needed a COVID-19 pandemic to be anxious about infections.

Long before the pandemic, living with a transplanted organ had its own caution, stress, and anxiety about illness.

Throw social isolation into the mix and your anxiety is only made worse.

Social Distancing’s Impact on Transplant Recipients Mental Health

Isabel Stenzel Byrnes has lived 16 years with a double-lung transplant. Byrnes is a licensed social worker and grief counselor from California who says she started to feel the effects of social isolation about two months into the pandemic.

“I was starting to really find myself in a slump, and missing the energy shared with human beings,” said Byrnes, who copes by taking socially distanced walks with people.

One positive aspect of life during COVID-19 is that today we have computers, tablets, and Smartphones, which can be useful resources to visually and auditorily connect transplant recipients with their doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, social workers, colleagues, and friends.

Read the full article, here.

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How a Liquid Biopsy Helps Your Transplanted Kidney or Heart?

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Every buzzword has its beginning.

In early 2020, few had heard of “Social Distancing.” By March, however, “Social Distancing” had become part of the universal lexicon.

In the transplant community, it’s just a matter of time until “Liquid Biopsy” becomes the latest buzzword.

What is a Liquid Biopsy?

The liquid biopsy uses fragments from the blood to give information that is usually found from taking a solid biopsy. The science has been widely used in cancer diagnosis and management, replacing invasive sampling with a non-invasive blood test.

As cells undergo changes, injury, or natural death, their DNA fragments are released into the blood stream. These fragments are known as cell-free DNA (cfDNA),1 and they provide a continuous stream of information. In the case of cancer cells, a liquid biopsy is detecting the cfDNA coming from the tumor.

Read the full article, here.

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Does Timing Matter When Taking Anti-Rejection Medications for Your Transplanted Kidney or Heart?

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Having an organ transplant can feel like a new lease on life!

You find that you can suddenly do more of the things that you enjoy. However, new recipients are sometimes overwhelmed with all the requirements of post-transplant living.

Protecting your new gift requires some discipline and consistency. As a new transplant recipient, you become keenly aware of things like:

  • Water-intake levels
  • Urine-output measurements
  • Changes in weight
  • Blood-pressure levels
  • Blood-sugar levels

To maintain the health of your transplanted organ, it is important that you take your immunosuppressant (anti-rejection) medications, but also at the same times each day.

Anti-rejection medications help to tame your body’s ability to attack and potentially damage your transplanted organ. To accomplish this, however, anti-rejection medications need to be taken:

  • Every day
  • At the same times

Read the full article, here.

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3 Toddler Siblings with Rare Heart Condition Receive Life-Saving Transplants

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“Sara Siqueiros tells PEOPLE that the last two years for her and her husband Jason Sr. have been a complete whirlwind ever since their kids — daughter Isabel, 4, and twin sons, Jaxon and Jason, 2 — were all diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy.

“I want them to grow up being thankful that their hearts beat for two and to never forget that,” Sara Siqueiros tells PEOPLE of her daughter and twin sons.”

Read the full story, here.

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A Woman With Down Syndrome Has Fought For Organ Transplant Anti-Discrimination Legislation For Years; Now, It’s Been Proposed, And Named After Her

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“When Charlotte Woodward was 22-years-old, her doctors told her she needed a heart transplant. 

Woodward, who has Down syndrome, was born with an atrioventricular heart defect that includes a hole in the wall between the heart’s chambers and flaws in its valves. It is common for babies with Down syndrome to be born with a heart condition; according to the National Down Syndrome Society, approximately half of all infants born with Down syndrome have a heart defect.”

Read the full story, here.

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Patient’s Ventricles Removed as Bridge to Heart Transplant

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“Brian Pedigo was originally referred to Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, for a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), but the 41-year-old’s condition deteriorated rapidly.

He was experiencing intractable ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation and going into cardiogenic shock. With both ventricles in bad shape, his team of cardiologists couldn’t just put in an LVAD. On top of that, Pedigo’s thin frame and the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) to support him in the ICU meant he likely wasn’t a candidate for an FDA-approved total artificial heart.”

Read the full article, here.

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U.S. Army Veteran Gets Triple the Chance At Life, with Utah’s First Triple Organ Transplant

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“Decades of planning put physicians at University of Utah Health in the position to save a United States Army veteran whose life was hanging by a thread, as three of his major organs were failing.

“He was so, so, so, so sick,” said Dr. Craig Selzman, surgical director of the heart and lung transplant program at University of Utah Hospital. “We didn’t really think he had a chance.”

Keith Baker, 58, started with heart failure, a condition that worsened over time and ultimately caused irreparable damage to his kidneys. Not long after that, the Yuma, Arizona, native was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. With triple organ failure, he was not believed to be a good candidate for transplant, said Dr. Josef Stehlik, surgeon and director of the heart transplant program at the U.”

Read the full story, here.

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Duke Completes 1,500th Heart Transplant

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“In the midst of the pandemic, Duke University Hospital last week completed its 1,500th heart transplant, a milestone achieved by only five other transplant centers nationwide.

Surgeons performed the first heart transplant at Duke in 1985, and the hospital recorded its 1,000th heart transplant in 2014.

“It’s taken us six years to accomplish the next milestone, which we think is of significance,” Said Dr. Chet Patel, Duke’s medical director for heart transplants.”

Read the full story, here.

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