Outpatient Follow-up

After you go home from the hospital, it is important for the transplant team to follow you closely.  Lab tests will be done every Monday and Thursday and you will need to come to transplant clinic weekly for the first few months. As time passes, the clinic visits and lab tests will be less frequent.

If you do not live in the Sacramento area we can make arrangements with a lab close to your home for your blood tests.  During the first several months after your transplant it will be important for you to be seen regularly by a transplant doctor.  After that time, your transplant doctor can communicate closely with a doctor in your area so you will not have to make so many trips to Sacramento.

Arrangements for your lab tests and clinic visits will be made by one of the transplant coordinators when you are discharged from the hospital.  One of the transplant coordinators is also on-call 24 hours a day if you have problems.

About 4 weeks after your transplant, the ureteral stent that was placed during surgery will need to be removed. This is done in the operating room, but is an outpatient procedure. While you are asleep, a tube with a camera is inserted into your bladder (like a catheter) and the small stent is simply located and removed. Although it is done in the operating room, the procedure takes only a short time and you will go home as soon as you are fully awake after the procedure.

You will not be able to drive for approximately six weeks after your transplant.  You will need someone else
to drive you for lab tests and doctor visits during that time.

All transplant patients need to have a primary care doctor and must pay close attention to routine health
maintenance such as screening mammograms for females, colonoscopy for patients over 50, skin
screening, etc.  If you do not have a primary care doctor, the transplant team may be able to assist you.

If you have any further questions about transplantation, please call one of the transplant coordinators
at 916-734-2111 or 800-821-9912.