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How a Patient Advocate Can Help Transplant Patients

When you are going for an organ transplant, there are so many things that need to get done. You have to prepare for the procedure, research lots of information, and keep your head together all at the same time. Patient advocates can help you in so many ways.

Advocate for Your Rights

A patient advocate can advocate for your rights. Sometimes, when you stay in hospitals or when you are dealing with people in the medical field, your rights may be infringed upon. You may even be completely overlooked. A patient advocate will insure that you receive the utmost respect that you deserve and are treated in a way that is both ethical and dignifying.

Provide You with Vital Information

The process of getting an organ transplant may be chaotic and confusing, especially when things seem to happen all at once. A patient advocate can help you get all of the information that you need when you do not feel capable of handling the task of researching on your own. The patient advocate will sit down with you after he or she finds all of the information that you need and discuss everything to make sure you fully understand everything. It is the job of a patient advocate to keep you informed.

You may feel like you do not need a patient advocate. But even if you are capable of advocating for yourself, it is always a good idea to have one when going through something as major as this because it shows medical staff that you are in control and are not messing around, and you will not have the burden of dealing with everything all on your own.

Filed Under: Organ Transplant, Transplant Physician Tagged With:

Emotionally Preparing for Transplant Surgery

When you have to undergo surgery to have an organ transplant, you will experience a lot of different emotions. You will feel scared because there are a lot of uncertainties about going through surgery to have an organ transplant. You will feel anxious because you hope that everything will turn out okay, and you will feel upset because you cannot believe this is you. On top of all of this, you will feel happy because you have an opportunity to live. If you want to deal with these emotions in the best way, there are some things you can do to make that possible.

Talk With Close Friends

One way to effectively cope with all of these emotions is to talk with close friends who understand you. Your close friends will be able to provide you with the support you need to get through the difficult times, and they will be there for you through the good times also. They will stand by you better than anyone else in the community, such as a medical professional or therapist.

Talk with a Therapist

While a therapist cannot provide the support that close friends can, they can help you to find strategies that will enable you to cope with everything better, and they will provide a professional opinion that your friends cannot that will help you to make better sense of what you are feeling.

Support Groups

Whether you attend a support group online or in the community, you will find the support you need from people who have been where you are or are currently in the same position you are. These people can share their stories, provide encouragement, and share strategies.

Filed Under: Organ Transplant, Transplant Physician Tagged With: ,

Types of Medical Care a Transplant Patient Will Need

As a transplant patient, there are certain types of medical care that you will need. While it is impossible to cover everything here, as far as medical care is concerned because things are different for every type of transplant, a summary will be provided that will enable you to have an idea of the type of medical care you will need as a transplant patient.

Doctor’s Visits

When you are going through the process of having an organ transplant, you will have to visit the doctor quite a bit. You will visit a doctor to start the process of having the transplant. You will see the doctor to oversee your care while you are waiting, and you will also see your doctor throughout your life to manage your care.

Pain Management

When you have a transplant, you will have a great deal of pain. You will have to undergo pain management, such as take pain killers that have been prescribed by your doctor or learn techniques that will help you deal with the pain better. Good pain management will help you have a better quality of life.

Rejection Meds

After your transplant, you will have to take rejection meds for the rest of your life. This is to insure that your body does not reject the organ that you have received.

Counseling

A lot of emotions accompany an organ transplant. To deal with these emotions, you may have to seek counseling. Not all transplant patients do, however, but if you feel the need to, there is nothing wrong with doing this. Many people, after all, including many transplant patients, undergo this process and there is certainly no shame or harm in doing it.

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Transplant Tourism

You must have heard about medical tourism where people travel to exotic locations around the world to get treated to almost all of the diseases and get surgeries. This is a rapidly increasing sector where countries with low cost medical care are reaping the benefits. Developing countries such as India, China, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Costa Rica, Brazil, etc. are the ones which are at the top of the list of countries that are attracting customers from places like United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand where the cost of a dental surgery could get you a sports car. Now people are going to these same places to get organs transplantation done at much lower cost and where organs are widely available, also visit to the place is thrown in free. Instead in these medical tourism destinations, a surgery along with tickets plus a holiday is much lesser that a surgery at home.
Most of the developing countries where medical tourism is increasingly getting popular are also places of rampant organ trade. The long waiting periods in United States which can last from a couple of months to even years, has been pushing them to go to these countries and get the surgery done. Developed countries do not have as many organ donors as the number of people on the transplantation list. Hence it is a matter of life or death for a few people who reach for illegally obtained organs to live. Most of these countries have rampant poverty and bad government hospitals where poor people are snatched of their organs in the disguise of simple surgeries and sometimes even killed to obtain organs. A recent study done by the United Nations found that there are rampant unethical organ trafficking going on in the places where medical tourism is booming.

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Filed Under: Medication Programs, Transplant Physician Tagged With: , ,

Advance Care Directives

A person who is willing to donate her organs has to make sure that her last wish is fulfilled after her death. There is nothing much more satisfactory than knowing that you have given someone the gift of sight or even the gift of life. It is the last good deed that you might do before leaving this world and one that the person who receives your organ will remember for the rest of their lives. But there are a few important paper works and such that you need to take care of when you sign up for organ donation.

The most important documents that you need to take care are living wills, durable power of attorney and an Advanced Care Medical-Directive. Living wills are something like ordinary wills that every person makes while she is alive. These are instructions that include how the things owned by you will be spread among the people you think are worthy. Living wills do the same thing about your body. How it is going to be shared among the different people is decided by your will. It will have all the instructions of your medicare in case you cannot take proper decisions by yourself. You can also decide if your organs will go to a particular individual in specific. Just take it as a power of attorney of your body. There are different versions of these. A durable will or a power of attorney to a particular person will give all the rights of your body to this person in case you are dead. This person can decide on your behalf what organs to be donated and to be donated to whom. It is important that this living will is known to your physician and also to the person on who it is directed towards. Advanced Care Medical-Directive is essentially like the combination of living wills and the durable power of attorney.

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Filed Under: Organ Donors, Organ Transplant, Transplant Physician Tagged With: , ,

The Science Behind Transplant Rejection

Neutrophil engulfing anthrax bacteria, taken w...

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Sometimes, the immune system attacks the transplanted organs or tissues in the recipient’s body. This is known as transplant rejection. The immune system protects the body from harmful substances. The immune systems protect the body from microorganisms, cancer cells, toxins etc. Antigens are the kind of proteins which are present on the surfaces of the harmful substances. These antigens, if recognized by the body as foreign the immune system attacks them. Even the foreign blood may cause blood transfusion reaction and the foreign tissues may lead to transplant rejection reactions by the immune system. In order to prevent the immune system from attacking the transplanted organ or a tissue in a patient, the tissue typing is carried out before transplantation. Tissue typing involves procedures to ensure that the tissue isas much similar as possible as that of the recipient so that the chances of rejection maybe minimized. Generally no two people except for the identical twins.In order to prevent organ rejection , immunosuppressive drugs are administered. Otherwise most of the transplantations would trigger immune response resulting in the destruction of the transplanted foreign tissue.
Some of the symptoms of organ rejection is discomfort, uneasiness, fever, pain or swelling in the location of transplant etc. The symptoms may vary depending upon the kind of tissue. A biopsy of the tissue is taken and tests are run to find out whether the tissue or organ is rejected. Routine biopsy can be conducted in order to detect the rejection early before the development of symptoms.
Rejections are treated with immunosuppressive drugs; the dosage of these drugs depends on the status of the patient. If the tissue is being rejected high doses of medications are prescribed. The immunosuppressive treatments may not be successful all the time. Rejection can be prevented by ABO typing and HLA typing of the tissues before transplantation to find a close match.

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Filed Under: Organ Donors, Organ Transplant, Transplant Physician Tagged With: , ,

Choosing Hair Transplant and Transplant Physicians for Hair Re-Growth

Hair restorative mechanisms for treating hair fall or baldness surgically are called hair transplant procedures and surgeries. Earlier, baldness was seen commonly in men, but now, women also jump the bandwagon for hair transplant. While there are several other reasons for the surgical transplantation of scalp to promote new hair growth, the emphasis should be more on choosing the appropriate hair transplant physician. Sometimes, choosing the right physician for a surgery can make all the difference in the world.

Newspaper advertisements of “before”and “after” hair transplant photos are highly misleading. Seeing these photos, individuals seek hair transplant surgery but what they see is not always correct. Most of the time, the images are Photoshop-ed or tweaked in a way that appeals to the masses whereas the reality is something else.

Individuals seeking hair restoration should look select transplant physicians based on their depicted results but beware; to further their”business”, irresponsible transplant physicians tend to manipulate images to make them appear larger than life.

Determining Genuine Hair Restoration Pictures from the Manipulated Ones:

-The genuine ones are never blurry.
-The manipulated photos are usually smaller in size to avoid any detection.
-Genuine photos are taken in close-up to show the clear work and difference the hair restoration made in the person.
-The manipulated photos are usually dark and duller to look at.
-The genuine photos are taken at the same angle “before” and “after” the hair transplant.
-The manipulated photos do not display the hairline grafts, rather they portray unnaturally symmetric hairline. Focus on the hairline to understand the real skill of the transplant physicians.
-The genuine “before” and “after” photos are clicked in the same condition to show marked difference after the treatment.

Decision for hair transplant surgery requires weighing the pros and cons. While the restoration surgery does not have complications as other organ transplant but extreme post transplant patient care is advised to prevent development of scalp infections.

Filed Under: Organ Transplant, Transplant Physician Tagged With: , , ,

How to Choose the Right Hair Transplant Physician

Muhammad ibn Zakariya ar-Razi
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All that glitters isn’t gold. Similar to this, the assumption that all transplant physicians are good, or are good-intended to do the right, by you is wrong. Hair transplant procedures are delicate to both the transplant physician and more so the patient. As some of the physicians out there today are solely operating for the sake of money, and disinterested in their patient’s well being, you as a potential patient need to consider some things on the basis of the doctor before going for transplant.

You are the doctor’s boss
Remember that at that time, you give the instructions on what you want. The vise versa simply means that you are the doctor’s lab rat. A doctor who won’t accept no as an answer should raise concern. It is your sole freedom to sample different doctors and choose the one you are comfortable with.
A genuine transplant physician is one who understands your seriousness about hair transplant. Doctors who don’t have time to hear what you have to say are the stay-away-from type of doctors.
Ask as many questions and expect an intelligent answer if they are a person who wants to know your goal and wants to help you attain them, if they are attainable.

Success based on performance
A good and successful transplant physician will have a number of success stories with them. They should also have a photo album of the before-and-after pictures of previous successful patients.
Getting in touch with the patients can also be vital and getting to know of their experience with the specific doctor and the after effects of the procedure can help prepare you psychologically for any side effects that may rise.

Price rates
The charges for the procedure will vary depending on the amount of transplant and the nature of the hospital, either private or general. Update yourself on the current costs of the procedure and then make a consultation with you physician, once you have chosen one.
Doctors that guarantee low costs and high discount are to be looked out for.

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