No Anti-Rejection Medications?

I had a video call earlier this afternoon in lieu of an in-person visit with the UCLA Transplant Center for a follow-up appointment. This time, it was another doctor that I have never met before; they must have a huge staff. He went through my lab results and basically made no changes to my medications. Again, my potassium (and calcium this time as well) was borderline high, so he asked me to watch my diet. Blood sugar was still high as well, but I told him my endocrinologist was managing it.

Right when we were about done with the call, he brought up another topic. He said a news crew just left UCLA. They were there to report on a story that UCLA was piloting a program to stop anti-rejection medications for kidney transplant patients after one year. He brought it up so I did not wonder why I did not have that option. From my understanding, essentially patients with a well matched donated kidney can overload on anti-rejection medications during the first year post-surgery, then not have to take any afterwards. Since I was a very good match to my sister’s kidney, they considered me for the program, but decided against it due to the tumor/cyst/growth that is still in the donated kidney. I guess there is a risk that if the object turns out to be cancerous, it may trigger my immune system, which could damage the donated kidney. They decided to err on the side of caution and did not approve me for the program. He did say that my dosage was pretty low already but wanted me to know about it.

Sigh. Not having to take anti-rejection medications would be awesome since that was the most negative part of getting a kidney transplant. However, I am not going to complain since having a working kidney is so much better than the alternative. I will have to have lots of scans periodically to check on the status of the tumor/cyst/growth, but it is a small inconvenience compared to dialysis.

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I could not find any mention of the program online. Maybe it takes a few days to edit and produce the news segment.