41 yo male, donated a kidney to my mom almost coming up on one year now. Feeling fine, no problems, so is Mom. However.....my Creatinine Level (CL) prior to donation was 1.0. Two months post donation: 1.8, Six months: 1.4, Seven months (due to hospitalization for chest/back pain): 1.6. The surgeon team out West told me going forward and pretty much for the remainder of my life, my new baseline CL would be around the 1.8 range. I'm okay with that if that is par with the course but my nephrologist (I live on the East Coast and decided to start seeing one) says in his experience, he has never seen or heard of someone expecting to have a new CL baseline so high post donation. Yes high right after surgery of course but it should come back down to within normal levels he says. Any thoughts? Seondly, and I guess its for my piece of mind more than anything but I like to get my blood drawn on a more frequent basis now just to see what the level is. What is the normal draw, every 6 months? 1x a year? Lastly, are there any warning signs to look out for which might indicate the lone remaining kidney is starting to fail (my lifestyle: not overweight, non-smoker, social alcohol drinker (wine), drink plenty of water and exercise quite a bit)?
Thanks.