Speaking for liver transplants, they are a many hour traumatic affair. My daughter lost and received more than her entire blood volume during hers. Initial recovery is extremely immunosuppressed and some of the drugs we had to handle with masks and gloves, and had 4x a day medication schedules. So you couldn't burn through pig livers I believe getting them swapped frequently. My daughter received her liver at age 8 months by the way and is now 19 yrs old.
Just curious, about how long does the initial recovery phase last? Congratulations to your daughter by the way, happy you all pulled through.
The first six weeks are pretty intense. The recovery is amazing as how fast liver labs drop and how fast the jaundice yellow clears. I would probably say six weeks is a fair figure until you are a whole new person!
AMAZING - bless you and your family, thank you for sharing your experience!
Wow, congrats. Does she still take immunosuppressants? If so do you and your family take extra caution to not bring home any sickness (for example always washing hands or similar). If her body accepted the liver, how long did it take for that to happen? It's very interesting to me, especially if we can figure out how to force the body to learn/accept the transplant with something better than immunosuppressants and not immunosuppressants. Thanks.
She takes immunosuppressants every day still. We do not practice any additional caution. We've all had Covid more than once, and she gets every cold and other virus and fights them off no problem. She got EBV with her liver, and when that flares up they will reduce her suppressants at times.
For renal transplants - not sure if there’s an upper limit, although each subsequent transplant becomes a more difficult match (as antibodies build up) and eventually may have to remove previous transplants. Generally renal transplants go in the right or left groin with native kidneys left in place. If one transplant fails, a transplant to the opposite side may be attempted, or a different location (such as intra-abdominal). Otherwise, will need to explant the first transplant