Kidney Patient Guide

Interesting comment. No one has suggested I slow down on sugar. I will ask and if they agree even remotely take your advice. Sugar is going to replace fat as the 'bad' food soon, despite the big food manufacturers fighting tooth and nail to keep it off the agenda. Given the link between sugar consu...

I watched the first one and as soon as there was a live donor on screen, I was in bits. I'm getting a bit teary now, just thinking about it. I thought it was a fabulous programme - hopefully it will get repeated at a more civilised hour. I'll probably pop a link to it on my various social media in a...

Indeed, great news - congratulations!

Hammersmith uses a steroid free protocol, after the initial hospital stay.

They may reintroduce it (as they did with me) if you have a rejection episode.

Tacro and MMF are not steroid based, and have their own side effect issues.

I take adoport, so I guess that's the difference.

The manufacturers do stipulate not eating - it's right there on the information leaflet (see here: http://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/medicine/24928 under Method of Administration), and my hospital were very clear about taking it at the correct times and with the 1 hour / 2 hour gap before / after food...

I would be utterly screwed without my medicine boxes. I was originally given a medimax box by Hamnmersmith when I had my transplant http://www.medimax.co.uk/resources/scripts/showimage.aspx?img=/resources/images/shop/os65f/1.jpg&s=350 Which was great but a bit too big, especially since I don't n...

Well, I've managed to go quite a while without a fuckup (occasional missed meds aside) and yesterday I had a doozy! Having a bit of a time of it at work at the moment, and upon finishing a fairly stressful meeting at 11, I thought, hmm, have I taken my 10am tabs? Couldn't find my med box and so I th...

I took Valgan for the first 3 (or possibly 6) months as well - it was prophylactic in my case.

Brilliant, well done! I love being boringly normal, it's such a relief.

And bravo on the walking as well - Swanage is such a lovely part of the world.

I'm with Wagolynn. Speak to your doctor - there are loads of BP meds to try and I'm sure they'll swap you onto something else. I was fine on Ramipril, Irbesartan and Doxasosin, but had trouble on Metoprolol and Nifedipine. Everyone is different, and I hope you find the one that does that job and has...

When Spain moved over onto the opt-out model, there was a massive increase in the level of organ donations. However, when they looked into why, it wasn't actually directly due to the opt-in. It was as a result of the conversations people were having about transplantation because of the change in leg...

Tibbs, I was told at the clinic that Prograf is actually toxic for kidneys but equally the level in your blood is very important. In my opinion the less you have to take the better all round. (I accept that variations can exist between people and race but on the whole I find that people who take th...

The amount you take doesn't matter; it's all about the amount you have in your system. Certainly I was told I was at the upper end of normal for a white person at 10mg per day (I take them on an empty stomach). At my clinic there are lots of Afro-Carribean transplantees, and the A-C patients often n...

Good that things are moving along! If Guys won't do it, ask them to refer you to Hammersmith. My dad had 2 arteries and it was looked upon as normal. they certainly said in the transplant seminar that we went to that they were happy to deal with multiple artery kidneys. One of the examples Mr Papalo...