Update on Megan's Kidney

25-Sep-07: Only 5 days after Megan's kidney transplant, it's obvious that she's getting healthier. From the inflection in her voice, the whiteness in her eyes again to the way she could walk around the hospital pod four times, all of it was so amazing to watch. She progressed very quickly and I simply was in awe of what a kidney transplant did for her.

20-Sep-07: Day after the transplant.

19-Sep-07: Pictures from the transplant day.

Checking into the hospital.

Maureen is prepted and ready for surgery.

The surgeon gives Megan last minute news on cross typing and indicates that the surgery is a go.

Megan being taken into the operating room.

18-Sep-07: Mom, Maureen, Megan, Tammy, Tom and I all celbrated the night before the transplant at our house.

6-Sep-07: We found out today that they will use Megan's mom's kidney and transplant it into Megan on 19-Sep. We're extremely excited!

7-Feb-07: Megan started dialysis. We will be scheduling the bladder surgery soon. This surgery will help correct issues related to a birth defect she had. The surgery will help the bladder from not refluxing up into the kidney.

1-Sep-06: We found out that Megan's kidney is now in chronic rejection and need to get on the transplant list. It was pretty devastating news but at least we know now what the next steps are. That's been pretty tough -- not knowing what they'd say next. The first surgery Megan will need will be to correct the neurogenic bladder condition she's had since she was born.

This condition causes ureteral reflux which is urine flowing backwards from the bladder up toward the kidney instead of being completely urinated or emptied into the toilet by catheterization. Refluxing urine, when infected can lead to permanent renal damage and therefore must be corrected before she gets a new kidney.

After the surgery, we hope to get a kidney. The waiting list currently has an average of 18 months. That's what I know for now.

23-Aug-06: Megan had a second kidney biopsy today as a result of her creatin levels increasing to 2.4 (from 2.2 last week). They are trying to fugure out why her levels keep going up. We will have news later this week.

23-Jul-06: I am summarizing what the doctors have told us about Megan's situation. Megan has acute rejection of her transplanted kidney.

She's had the kidney 12 years (as of 4-Jul-06). Acute rejection is not common amongst individuals that have relatively no issues in that amount of time. The root cause of the rejection is related to the chronic Urinary Track Infections (UTI) she's had. This is a loaded answer and gets way more complicated than I can explain, however the problem was that since she was on so many antibiotics, her own immune system was board one day and decided to recognize the transplanted kidney as a foreign body and attack it. Megan's immune system is trying to kill the kidney right now but through medication, the doctors believe that this can be stopped. I found a great quote from Barry Friedman, RN, administrative director of the Solid Organ Transplant Program at the Children's Medical Center in Dallas. He says it well.

"I always tell my patients that I wish we had a better word instead of 'rejection,'" says "It sounds so scary, but it doesn't mean that you're going to lose your organ. It usually just means we have to adjust your medication." Once you establish a new medication regimen that works, you can usually go back to business as usual."

Web MD says the following regarding Acute Rejection of the Kidney...

During the first weeks to months after your surgery, your body may try to reject your new kidney. This is called acute rejection and occurs in 25% to 55% of people after transplant. Most of the time, acute rejection can be treated with immunosuppressive medications.

Chronic rejection is a process of gradual, progressive loss of kidney function and can occur many months to several years after your surgery. Experts don't fully understand what causes chronic rejection. There is no treatment for chronic rejection; most people go back on dialysis or have another transplant.

A transplant rejection is the body's destruction of a newly introduced organ or tissue. A person's immune system does not recognize the cells of the transplanted material, which triggers it into action to kill the transplanted tissues. The immune system's response eventually makes the organ or tissue unable to function. Medications can be given to suppress the immune system, although taking them can make it easy for a person to get sick. Having a suppressed immune system makes it hard for a person to fight off all types of infections.

Megan does not have chronic rejection. Currently, we're trying a new regimen of medications (including her immune suppressant). This has it's own risks but it's the first step in many that we'll be taking to save her kidney. Megan is the most positive person in the world and will do whatever it takes to keep this kidney. Please keep Megan in your thoughts and prayers.