Transplant Nutrition

Hello everyone,
This week I am with the dietitian who covers the outpatient Transplant Center at CMC and all of the inpatient transplant patients (those considered candidates to get a transplant, those recovering from transplant surgery, and those who have ever had a transplant and are back in the hospital for anything) She just covers the "hard organs"- liver, pancreas, kidney, and heart transplants mostly. This morning, we attended the heart selection committee meeting and it was really interesting to hear all of the clinicians talk about the patients and whether or not they are good candidates for transplants. They discussed the results of the random smoking screening that they do, as well as their demeanor and compliance issues. They really respected the dietitians opinion, particularly because one of the patients who they really wanted to get on the transplant list was a skinny guy with cardiac cachexia. The dietitian expressed that he should have at least a month to "beef up" and then he should certainly be considered, and everyone agreed. She's going to meet with him this week and talk about supplements and making sure that he's as strong as he can be so he will be able to transplant his heart!

We also met with 2 candidates for kidney transplants in the outpatient setting for an hour each. Dietitians have a role in this- Medicare requires that their BMI be <35 to be considered as candidates, she meets and evaluates every transplant candidate, and it is also necessary for a dietitian to make the rounds with the kidney team every day for coverage purposes. Tomorrow I will be going on these rounds with the medical team and am really interested to see this experience! Tomorrow is also the kidney selection meeting, and then Wednesday is the liver one (apparently the chief MD for liver is very meticulous and this is a very interesting meeting). I'm going to see a transplant with a living donor (hence they can schedule it ahead of time and I wont get called in to watch in the middle of the night whenever the organ arrives...) at the end of the month, so I'll be sure to post about that!

Take care!
Elizabeth