Table 3 Excerpt 2 Providing clear non-technical explanations

226.

CKD-P7:

Oh. What about a transplant?

227.

Doc2:

So that’s the best option, and that would be the one that I would go for you, you know, because you don’t have to have dialysis. But you can’t have that before starting dialysis, unless somebody’s prepared to give you a kidney.

228.

CKD-P7:

Okay.

229.

DOC2:

So if someone, a friend, family, doesn’t really matter.

230.

CKD-P7:

Mm.

231.

DOC2:

You’re not allowed to advertise, but they don’t have to be that well-known to you. But if they’re willing to give you a kidney, then it can be organised, and we try to time it just before you’d otherwise need dialysis.

232.

CKD-P7:

Oh, okay.

233.

DOC2:

The downside to transplant is that you take a lot of drugs afterwards.

234.

CKD-P7:

Oh.

235.

DOC2:

To supress the immune system so that you don’t reject the kidney. And those drugs increase your risk of infection, significantly, particularly viral infections that you might not otherwise get.

236.

CKD-P7:

What about the other person?

237.

DOC2:

The person who’s given you a kidney?

238.

CKD-P7:

Mm.

239.

DOC2:

The risks to them are low, very low, but they’re not zero.

240.

CKD-P7:

Okay.

241.

DOC2:

If you look at people that have voluntarily donated a kidney compared to people who haven’t, the people who’ve donated actually do better than the people who haven’t donated a kidney. But that’s because we test them so carefully to make sure that they’re in really good health before they donate. If you actually compare the people that donate a kidney against people of a similar level of physical fitness and everything who haven’t donated, then the people that donate do do slightly worse.