Fwd: [igan] Re: PD...Transplant....and employment.....

If you are working now, there's no reason that you couldn't keep on
working on PD, and then with a transplant. This assumes employment
that isn't too physical and that allows a bit of flexibility, and it
assumes you understand that everything about PD or transplant doesn't
work perfectly all the time. By that, I mean you have to expect some
inconvenience and some unforeseen problems. For example, you could be
running just fine on PD for months, and then all of a sudden, you've
got a peritoneal infection. When that happens, you might need some
hospitalization time, and then you might have to be on hemodialysis
for a few days or weeks until the infection is totally cleared,
depending on how severe it is. Or, if you start having some problems
with pain or whatever, they could have you come into the PD unit for a
day or two. This is where flexibility in the workplace comes in.

Or you could decide to do your PD overnight with the automatic cycler,
but then find out that it's not giving you enough dialysis, and now
you have to keep doing the overnight routine plus one or more twin bag
fluid exchanges during the daytime. There's just no way to predict
these kinds of problems.

Transplant is kind of the same idea. I mean, you never know when you
might need to be hospitalized for an infection or something. Just
don't expect to work the first month, and realistically, a couple of
months after the surgery. You will probably also tend to catch more
colds that go around the office than most people do, and when you do,
they can last longer and make you feel worse.

When you have little problems that crop up, you have to go to the home
PD unit, the transplant clinic, or the hospital, and that's not
counting other appointments with various specialists they might set up
for you. So you have to be available for that, because you usually
have to take the appointments as they are for the most part.

So, as long as you know what to expect, and you do have a bit of
personal flexibility in your job, there's no reason not to continue
working. That being said, I know a lot of people who are on various
forms of dialysis or who have a kidney transplant. Some work, some
don't. There can be no guarantees. Ultimately, you end up doing what
you have to do, because your life depends on it.