Frequently Asked Questions
What role do social workers play in the transplant process?
Our amazing social workers are part of your kidney transplant team from the very beginning. They explain the kidney transplant process in an easy to understand way, review your support system, and help the team understand how ready you are to handle surgery, recovery, and life with a transplanted kidney. They also check in on how you are coping emotionally, since stress, depression, or burnout can make it harder to follow a treatment plan and take anti-rejection medicines as prescribed.
At Home Dialysis Therapies of San Diego, each social worker follows a small group of patients rather than a large caseload, which allows more time for one to one support. They help you navigate insurance and disability benefits, apply for financial assistance when needed, arrange transportation and housing around the time of surgery, and connect your family with community resources and support groups. Transplant social workers continue to be available after surgery, so you have a consistent person to call when questions or new challenges come up.
To understand more about the role of social workers, check out the description of their role by the Society for Transplant Social Workers!
How long does a kidney transplant last?
A kidney transplant can last many years if properly taken care of. On average, a transplanted kidney from a living donor works about fifteen to twenty years, while a kidney from a deceased donor often works around eight to twelve years. Some kidney transplants fail earlier and some continue to work for many years, so these numbers are averages, not guarantees.
How long a kidney transplant lasts depends on several medical factors, including the type of donor kidney, how closely the donor and recipient are matched, the quality of the kidney (KDPI score), age and other health conditions, and how consistently anti-rejection medicines are taken over time. Modern care has improved long term graft survival compared with past decades, and many people are able to be evaluated for another kidney transplant if their first transplanted kidney eventually fails. Your nephrologist and transplant team can give you the clearest estimate for your situation based on your lab results and the specific kidney you receive.
At Home Dialysis Therapies of San Diego, your care plan is built to keep you as healthy a candidate for kidney transplant as possible. After transplant, we stay in close contact with your transplant center and help you manage labs, medicines, and any other needs, so you have coordinated support throughout the life of your transplanted kidney.
What is life like after a kidney transplant?
Many people feel a major boost in energy and overall quality of life after a kidney transplant, because the new kidney is doing the work that dialysis used to do. Most patients no longer need dialysis, have more stable fluid levels, and can return to work, travel, and family activities once their surgeon gives clearance. Lifelong anti-rejection medicines are still required, and regular lab tests and clinic visits remain essential to monitor kidney function and catch any problems early.
A healthy lifestyle becomes part of protecting the transplant. That usually means following a diet that is low in salt and focused on fruits, vegetables, lean protein, and whole grains, staying active with walking and light exercise, avoiding tobacco, and limiting alcohol. Your transplant and nephrology teams will adjust your medicines, blood pressure treatment, and diet over time so you can enjoy as normal a life as possible while keeping the new kidney.
Will I still need home dialysis after a kidney transplant?
For most people, dialysis stops once the new kidney begins working. A successful kidney transplant takes over the job of filtering waste and extra fluid from your blood, so home dialysis or in-center dialysis is no longer needed. Occasionally, especially with deceased donor kidneys, the new kidney can be “sleepy” at first. In that case, a short period of dialysis may be needed until the kidney wakes up and starts working well enough on its own.
If you ever need dialysis again in the future because the transplanted kidney fails, your transplant and home dialysis teams will work together to restart therapy safely. At Home Dialysis Therapies of San Diego, we stay in close contact with transplant centers to help patients move smoothly between home dialysis and transplant care if needed, and to keep you prepared for another transplant evaluation when appropriate.
How does the kidney transplant waiting list work?
If your nephrologist and transplant center agree that a kidney transplant is a good option, they will complete a full evaluation and, if you qualify, add your name to the National Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) kidney waiting list. This list is actually a secure database that includes medical details such as blood type, tissue type, body size, how long you have had kidney failure, and how sick you are. Non-medical factors like race, income, or social status are not used to match organs.
When a deceased donor kidney becomes available, the matching system creates a list of possible recipients. Your position for a given kidney depends on several factors, including how well your medical profile matches that organ, how long you have been waiting, whether you are highly sensitized (have many antibodies), and how far you live from the donor hospital. You can often be listed at more than one transplant center, which may improve your chances by accessing different donor pools, but it also means more travel and duplicate testing. At Home Dialysis Therapies of San Diego, our team helps patients understand their waiting time, explore options like multiple listing, and stay medically ready so they can accept a kidney offer as soon as one is available.
How much does a kidney transplant cost?
The total first-year cost of a kidney transplant in the United States is typically measured in hundreds of thousands of dollars. The costs include the surgery, hospital stay, post-transplant clinic visits and medications needed to treat high blood pressure, infections and to prevent or treat rejection. Insurance coverage (Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance) pays a large portion of these charges, but copays, deductibles, travel costs, and medication costs can still be significant for many patients.
Long term, you will also have ongoing expenses for clinic visits, lab tests, and lifelong immunosuppressive medicines, though these are often less than the ongoing cost of dialysis. Your exact out of pocket cost depends on your insurance plan, secondary coverage, eligibility for Medicare based on end stage kidney disease, and available financial assistance programs. At Home Dialysis Therapies of San Diego, our social workers review your coverage, help you apply for assistance when available, and work closely with transplant center financial counselors so you understand likely costs before surgery and have a plan for managing the costs of medicines and follow up care afterward.
