How to Recover From a Kidney Transplant at the Hospital

The length of stay in the hospital for uncomplicated kidney transplant is from 5 to 10 days for a living-donor kidney and up to 25 days for a cadaveric kidney.

Things You'll Need

• Immunosuppressants

Show More

Instructions

• 1

  Avoid injury to the transplant site. Nurses will examine and clean your incision site three times a day.

• 2

  Measure your urinary output. For a man, this means urinating in a urinal, for a woman, a plastic "hat" placed under the toilet seat.

• 3

  Plan to cough and take deep breaths regularly to prevent pneumonia. Walk at least four times a day around your hospital room and halls.

• 4

  Learn the proper ways to take your medicines and how to prevent organ rejection and infection once you go home.

• 5

  Look for signs of rejection such as: fever, flulike symptoms, decrease in urine production, changes in blood pressure, weight gain, or pain around your new kidney.

• 6

  Note signs of infection such as: redness around your incision site, fever, puslike drainage, flulike symptoms, or pain around your new kidney.

• 7

  Learn everything you can about your medicines because you may be on immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of your life. They prevent your body from releasing antibodies meant to attack your new kidney.

• 8

  Talk to your transplant social worker; now is the time to develop a trusting and helpful relationship. When you get home, you'll want to be able to call at the first sign of a problem.

• 9

  Get help from family members. Assign one of them to be "in charge." This person will assume the role of your "primary home care giver."