Kidney transplant patient healing well

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Brent Doctor feels like a new man.

"I feel energetic again. I don't feel so wiped out after just going up the stairs. My appetite is back. Overall, I'm dramatically improved," Doctor said.

Six weeks ago, Doctor had a kidney transplant. In November 2008, he went into kidney failure and started dialysis. But, he didn't have to wait long for a transplant. His half-sister, Jenni McConnell, gave him one of her kidneys.

The surgeries went well. McConnell is already completely healed.

"It went a lot better than I would have anticipated. I feel exactly the same," McConnell said.

The same, except she has four scars on her abdomen.

"It was a small price to pay to see how good he's doing," she said. "I'd do it again if I had to. It was a good whole process to go through. It was life changing."

Life changing for both her and Doctor. McConnell is making healthier choices to prevent getting diabetes, which is a leading cause of kidney failure.

"I'm starting to get more active. I've been playing tennis lately and watching my diet," she said.

Doctor is getting used to a new life that doesn't involve hooking up for dialysis several times a day.

"Two days after I came home [from the hospital], we went out for dinner and a movie and I felt like I wasn't just recovering. I was going forward and moving on with my life," Doctor said. "I didn't have to worry, 'Am I going to get my dialysis treatment on time?'"

While Doctor's recovery is going well, it's a life-long job to maintain the kidney.

For the first month after the transplant, Doctor had to meet with Dr. John Ducker, a Lutheran Hospital Nephrologist, two times a week.

"We make sure there are no signs of rejection," Ducker said.

At first, rejection signs are obvious like fever, chills, kidney pain and change in kidney function. As time goes on, the signs become more subtle and the kidney failure diagnosis becomes based on kidney function.

"The surgery is the first step, but the longest step after that is maintaining the kidney and maintaining its function and trying to prevent rejection in the long run," Ducker said.

In the second month, the doctor visits go down to once a week with lab work twice a week. Month three has lab work once a week and meeting with the doctor every other week. The visits will become more infrequent from there, but Doctor will have check-ups every three months for the rest of his life.

Even though Doctor and McConnell were a good match for the transplant, Doctor's body still views his new kidney as foreign tissue. To keep it from trying to destroy it, Doctor takes medicine to suppress his immune system.

"You have to weigh the balance of how much immune suppression. You don't want to over suppress and you want to keep them healthy otherwise," Ducker said.

While the immune system is suppressed to keep the kidney from being rejected, the patient is also at a higher risk of getting sick.

In addition to the anti-rejection medication, Doctor also takes medicine to prevent infections and for his blood pressure and diabetes. In all, he's taking 9 pills in the morning and 5 more pills at night. That's down from 15 pills in the morning and 12 at night a few weeks ago. The number of medications will continue to taper off as he continues to heal, but he'll be left with six pills every morning at 8 a.m. and every evening at 8 p.m. for the life of the kidney. But, Doctor said trading dialysis for anti-rejection pills is a pretty good deal.

"Sometimes I wake up and realize I feel normal again, but it's hard to forget I have my sister's kidney. Someone selfless enough to give me her kidney so I could have a second chance at life," Doctor said.

That second chance will start with college at IPFW in the fall. Doctor wants to be a nurse and work with diabetic children. He's also writing a book about living with diabetes and having a kidney transplant.