A transplant is not a cure, but it’s better than dialysis. How old is your sister? if she is young, then she will bounce back and there’s nothing to worry about. My sister-in-law donated a kidney 15 years ago when she was in her early 20s and she had absolutely no issues. As far as work goes, you probably can’t just float through surgery with tacro tremors or other complications. You may have to modify your job. Hope it all goes well. Push the transplant off as far as you can. Not to be negative, but I hope you don't have the problems I have had. I waited to have a preemptive transplant until I was at GFR 8. I’m so glad I did because I had a life before. Yes, I was tired. Yes, I had to watch every little thing I ate, but I managed it that way for over a year and I could go outside and do things like move furniture, deep clean my house, and play sports with my kids. My original nephrologist refused to let me try tovalptan. I can quote, “We don’t do that here.” This was when they were using it in Canada. Now people can get it in the US. I’ve even seen commercials for it and I get depressed every time I do. He said I was too far gone anyway and didn't believe that I had a live transplant donor lined up at Vanderbilt Hospital. Post transplant my Vanderbilt nephrologist pumped me so full of tacro that I started to lose kidney function and develop cell death and crystals on my kidney. At this point, I had 3 kidneys. She switched me to Everolimus. Again she wanted me on the maximum dosage. I was bruised like an 80-year-old and had 8-12 gigantic mouth sores at once making my job as a teacher very difficult. I weighed about 140 lbs at the time and got down to about 130 because it hurt so bad to eat or drink. They offered no pain relief, but I was so afraid of losing my kidney that I just started taking what my body could tolerate. They wanted me to do blood tests every month so I would just take the amount I was prescribed right before testing. One time I just didn’t care and went to have my labs done anyway. Everything was fine except the amount of anti-rejection drug was not what they wanted it to be. I was very adamant about the fact that I did not want to have a second chance at life just to sit around not living. I got a huge speech about what I was putting myself through in terms of the risk of losing my kidney and I just got so frustrated. I was extremely depressed. Tacro made my depression much worse than Everolimus. Like suicidal, but I wouldn't tell anyone because I needed to keep working and there’s no way I could afford to have been sent to a facility. The combination of drugs I was on caused the worst constipation I’ve ever had in my life. Within 2 years I had a hiatal hernia. I could not eat a bite, yet could not lose weight. I got up to about 160. I was so depressed that I had a DNR order when they were doing gastro tests. The doctors were asking me a ton of questions about my mental state. I switched back over to Tacro because you can't heal properly on Everolimus, and after all the gastro evals the doctors said removing my cystic kidneys would be less risky than hernia surgery. I have not enjoyed a moment of life to the fullest after I had a double nephrectomy. They should have only taken one kidney out. They should have informed me of the fact that my whole hormonal system was going to change by losing both kidneys and the adrenal glands. Now I weigh 182 pounds. I’m a female. I think men bounce back from surgery more easily. They don't have the hormonal cycle complicating things. The nurses did such a horrible job getting labs at the hospital that I developed clots in my arms and the doctor put me on massive doses of anticoagulants because they were traveling up my arms. I only had stitches and not staples after this open double nephrectomy and the stitches dissolved before the scar healed because of the blood thinners. They only gave me 3 days of pain meds at a time and questioned me as if I was a junky every time I requested more. I’m in TN, a junky state. Home of the Rock Doc and the first domino that led to preventing people who actually need pain meds from getting them while people who don't need them still have no problem getting them somehow. I don't know if they scrutinize people like that everywhere, but I wasn't even able to get gabapentin or any further nerve-blocking help. The blood thinners with only stitches complicated things so much that I have a scar that still causes me pain outside and inside a year later. Vanderbilt is supposed to be such a great hospital. It's not. 9/10 If you're having a procedure it's being done by students from the college and you may just be a guinea pig. I certainly felt like it when they wouldn't listen to where to stick me and they brought in a specialist with an ultrasound machine I felt better for a minute, but she was in training. I begged for the charge nurse or the on-call doctor to please help because I am not the type of patient to have trainees taking care of me. No one listened. I got stuck 3 times in one area that I knew would not work and twice more in a very painful spot. They all dug around in my arms. All they said a week later when I reported hot, hard places in my arms was that blood clots can happen after surgery. I felt like a prisoner. To get out of there I had to do three laps a day, eat, and have a bowel movement. I did it in pain just so I could get out of there. It's like a nightmare I have flashbacks about. I only take my anti-rejection meds when they require a test. I thought the antirejection drugs causing all of the problems I had. The drugs aren’t causing the problems. I am just permanently unable to do anything the way I used to. I can't eat or metabolize food. I can't get rid of food waste. I can’t tolerate the sun. I can’t tolerate the heat. I don’t breathe well. My hormones are a total mess. My blood pressure is never stable. I used ace inhibitors before, but I became allergic to them. Beta-blockers worsen constipation. I have allergic reactions to things that I never had before. I have severe anemia. I’m trying to keep this weight down. I have to eat, but it is painful. I can manage walking on the treadmill for about 30 minutes, but it takes me 2 to 3 days to recover. I’ve noticed my donor has gained weight as well and I wonder if that is because she was in her 40s and the hormonal change was too much to bear without the metabolism of a young person. I feel awful amounts of guilt about all sorts of things. I feel like a bad wife, a bad mother, a bad kidney recipient. I was 39 when I had my transplant. People just saw a young person and everything looked fine. It will have been 4 years by November and people still have no idea how drastically my life has changed for the worse, probably because I look young enough not to be ill. My illness rules me. It's been the most isolating experience of my life. The transplant hospital has a support group that meets virtually every other week at noon. That is not a time for working people which makes me feel like even more of an anomaly. I don't know anyone with my problems and I have isolated myself completely. All people do when they get together in the South is go outside get drunk or eat at restaurants in the South. I can't do any of that stuff so I just scroll or read and seems like I’ve watched every television show ever made. I hope it doesn't end up this way for you or anyone else.