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Hip replacement after having had kidney transplant

Transplants | Last Active: Mar 15, 2019 | Replies (12)

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@contentandwell

@scottb32 Hi Scott. I was supposed to have the knee replacement a few years ago but my platelets were too low on the scheduled surgery day so the surgeon came to me and broke the bad knees. The low platelets were from what turned out to be NASH cirrhosis, so after the liver transplant they wanted me wait a for 6 months but I decided I just was not ready for another surgery so I waited a year and then had it done.
I was on sirolimus which apparently can interfere with healing so they switched me back to tacrolimus for three months. This was the second knee and I was in pain for a few more weeks than I was after the first, but whether that was related to my transplant or medications, I don’t know. It suddenly improved dramatically, almost overnight.
Other than that it was smooth sailing. I had my transplant at Mass General, and coincidentally the orthopedic surgeon was at Brigham and Womens which is a “partner hospital” with MGH so there was communication between the two which I found reassuring.
Good luck with this, it really is not significantly different than it would be without having had a transplant. The biggest difference is being confined to Tylenol, no NSAIDs, and of course these days they prescribe narcotics very sparingly.
JK

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Replies to "@scottb32 Hi Scott. I was supposed to have the knee replacement a few years ago but..."

That was supposed to be that he broke the bad NEWS, he did not break my knees! I am writing this and it’s cracking me up.
To elaborate a bit more, my platelet count had been bad for a while so the surgeon would not do the surgery unless we could get the count up to @100. My hematologist worked with me on it but for some reason they plummeted on the morning of surgery.
Of course when my NASH cirrhosis was finally diagnosed about two years later we realized that was what caused the low platelet count.
JK

Thanks for sharing your experience. Helps me kind of relax about moving forward with the process. My plan is to schedule the procedure for early December. Sounds like you're doing well and I hope this continues. I'm glad your knees are good and I had to read it several times while laughing! Thanks again for your insight.