Colonoscopy after transplant: Anything I should know?

Hi @jennifer0726 😊
It's so wonderful to hear from you! Thank you for the excellent tip regarding sucking delicious hard candy in between the awful prep liquid. That's an awesome tip! I find the prep drink to be unbearable so a tip like that is priceless. (I also try to refrigerate the liquid, but that doesn't help that much). An unrelated question....now that you are also on your 4th anniversary, how often are you going for your routine lab work? Did you move to every 3 months or are you still on monthly labs?
Thanks so much for jumping into the conversation, I love hearing from you! ❤

Hi @hello1234, It will be 4 years 12/7, but hopefully I will go for annual tests and biopsy mid November. I have been getting labs done every 3 months for a long time. Thankfully, I haven’t had any rejection or viruses like you have fought. However, my eGFR has remained in the 30’s. (Started out post transplant in high 20’s) I can live with it without dialysis. I have had my share of other troubles like the large polyp, surgery to remove a large mass on my stomach last year with complications, and end of May will have most of my parathyroid’s out at Mayo. We all get stuff, maybe not the same stuff. I will be thinking of you! I also decided to start an hour early to make sure it is done before leaving for the procedure if early in morning. You can do this! Make sure to drink plain water, too if you do the prep in two parts to stay hydrated. Important for you and your new kidney. TMI, but before I start prep, I use A&D Ointment, then after each time you go to protect your bottom. It helps for me at least. Take care!

@jennifer0726 Thank you for all the great information Jennifer!
You are definitely correct when you say that we all have different stuff to deal with. What does the parathyroid do and how did you know there was a problem?

Hi @hello1234 A person typically has 4 tiny parathyroid glands about the size of a grain of rice behind the thyroid gland in your neck. One of the things they do is regulate blood calcium. I have had hyper parathyroidism and high blood calcium for many years that they thought was secondary to kidney failure. They thought it would normalize post transplant, however even though it reduced some, my blood calcium and PTH remain high. I had a nuclear scan in November and likely have multiple adenomas on my parathyroid’s, (Typically benign) or possibly hyperplasia. High blood calcium is bad for your heart, bones and kidneys, etc.,and can cause many side effects. It leeches calcium from your bones and can cause kidney stones or calcium in other places it should not be. It is a smaller surgery, horizontal cut in lower neck. It is exploratory. After my complications post surgery last year it does make me a bit nervous. It will be well. So good chatting with you.