Kidney transplant and being in a different hospital

[whoops]

I've not been on mn for quite sometime but thinking I'm going to need some mn support soon
About 5 years ago I posted about ds being diagnosed with a kidney disorder, well in the last 18 months things went drastically downhill he went into kidney failure and has haemodialysis 3 x week and he will shortly be on the waiting list for a new kidney

The hospital we are at regularly for his dialysis sessions doesn't deal with the transplants so we will have to go to the Evelina when the time comes.

What I was wondering was is there anyone else that is there regularly that may want to meet up as I will most likely be there on my own with ds as dh will be staying at home with dd so that she can carry on with school etc and also dh is a wimp doesn't deal with the blood and operations etc very well! and so I may need a bit of time to escape out of the world of hospital on odd occassions

I'm not there but wanted to wish your DS well and you lots of strength to get through. My own DS had other problems but I empathise with child illness and hospital living.

We haven't been down the transplant route as thankfully DDs kidneys recovered, but she had very short term dialysis at the Evelina a couple of years ago. The unit there is amazing and the children and their families are very well catered for. There are pull down beds for a parent beside every inpatient bed, except in PICU, though they have other arrangements for a parent to be either in the hospital or in accommodation close by if a PICU stay is necessary.

St Thomas is right next door and has a canteen but that is only open mon-fri with hot meals at lunch time. There is a M&S food shop there too though and we lived off a lot of microwave meals from there - the renal ward has fridges and microwaves you can use in the parent room, plus the usual showers etc. Tea and coffee is there for you to help yourself to in the parent room too. There is a hospital school and lots of open space outside the renal ward with big glass window looking onto it all so makes for a nice open feel to the place, but you can close curtains off too.

Let me know if you think I can give you any more info and good luck with everything.

Thank you beautifulgirls, glad to hear your dd recovered. A friends dd had her transplant there so I have seen the unit but it's scary thinking that I'll be away from our usual hospital for a couple of weeks as well as the usual interaction of people you know.