Organ transplantation is the surgical removal of a healthy organ from one person and its transplantation into another person whose organ has failed or was injured.
But organ transplantation is also a major surgery that carries potential risks and drawbacks, such as the chance of organ rejection.
When a person receives an organ from someone else during transplant surgery, that person's immune system may recognize that it is foreign. This is because the person's immune system detects that the antigens on the cells of the organ are different or not "matched." Mismatched organs, or organs that are not matched closely enough, can trigger a blood transfusion reaction or transplant rejection.
After an organ transplant, these are some of the ways to retain a healthy transplant:
- Take Your Medication: The best thing to do keep your transplant going strong is to take your medications every day at the proper time. With today's transplants, the immunosuppressant medications are often to be taken once, twice or more a day. When we take our meds, we are keeping a proper level of that medicine in our systems.
- Coming to Terms with Reduced Immunity: People with suppressed immune systems need to come to terms with their situation. An infection or virus that is easily cured in someone with a normal immune system can be deadly for a transplanted patient. It is a serious situation.
- Good hygiene, home cleanliness and simple common sense can keep you from contracting a deadly virus or infection. Talk with your doctor about symptoms of infection, and be constantly aware of this possibility.
- Keep In-Contact with Doctor: One of the biggest mistakes patients of all kinds make is to rush through their doctor's appointment. You need to develop a working relationship with your team, and you'll need to maintain that relationship.
- Gather a Support System: Surrounding yourself with supportive family members has proven to help patients be healthier. Be sure to keep your life open to your family. Your transplant team may have a transplant patient support/activist program available that you can join.
- Live a Healthy Lifestyle: Eating healthy, watching your weight and exercising are extremely important to long-term transplant success. Getting out, getting active and finding something that makes you feel, well, alive is exceedingly important. Those who continue with their lethargic lifestyle may well find themselves with a shortened transplant.
- Ask Questions: Your doctors are your best and finest access to this knowledge. Learn about all aspects of your organ transplantation. Knowing your pills, their side effects, how your reduced immune system can affect you, etc. will allow you to catch side effects, illnesses and other issues before they become a problem.
- Stay Positive: Having a sunny outlook on life is paramount to living successfully with any disease. Studies have shown that from cancer to diabetes, those who are positive fair far better than those with a negative outlook.
- Follow Doctor's Orders: Your doctors know what can go wrong with transplant patients as that's what they do for a living. If you want a long-term transplant, you simply do what your doctors order. If you have questions about those orders, speak with your doctors or get a second option, but don't ignore their orders.
KIMS, recognized as one of the best organ transplant hospitals in Hyderabad, is in the forefront in treating patients who are in need for transplant. Our best organ transplant specialist doctors in Hyderabad facilitate all kinds of organ transplant. We have become the most sought after as a kidney transplant hospital and liver transplant hospital.