Eep

So I asked for another patient to be able to call me back, another peer support effort, so I could ask about the post transplant drug regime. I guess I was looking for some reassurance that the side effects wouldn't be that bad and that the numbers involved wouldn't be scary. The operation doesn't worry me at all (although it probably should!) - it's the post transplant immuno-suppressed status and how I'll end up with awful things like oral thrush(?!). I'd also been warned about looking "moon-faced" cos the steroids make you change the way you carry fat in the body, and getting excessively hairy.

Wasn't the most reassuring conversation I've ever had.

The lovely lady who called told me:
- she went into the hospital a size 6-8 and came out a size 14 because of the water retention and steriods, nine days later.
- Daily tablet intake immediately after surgery: 45 per day
- Over a year later: still 6 per day

On the upside, the moon face thing eases off as your dose of steroids starts to drop a few weeks in, and the hairy thing probably only means "plucking your eyebrows a bit more often".

Nice!

This is the reason I've kinda been avoiding getting to this point and not thinking about it much. Most people assume that the transplant is the end, the solution, the completion. The truth seems to be that kidney transplant is rather just another form of treatment for kidney failure. I am pissed off about that fact and haven't quite got my head around it yet. Here's hoping it's worth it.