Soon, I'll be receiving a kidney transplantation. A kidney transplantation doesn't just mean that you get a new kidney - it also means that you will have to take immunosuppressive medication to prevent it from being rejected by your body as foreign matter.

How long will I have to take that medication? For the rest of my life, most likely.

Here are some of the consequences that immunosuppressive medication will likely have for me (not exhaustive):
1. I can no longer get vaccinations.
2. I can no longer attend events with high risk of infection - for me, that means eg. hacker events like Congress with no safety precautions, *especially* as long as COVID is a thing (which seems like it will be around for years to come).
3. There are certain medications for other health issues that I will never be able to take because of interactions.
4. I will be dependent on the *availability* of immunosuppressants for the rest of my life. If there is a shortage, there is a pretty good chance that I will die.
5. There are certain categories of foods that I will never be able to eat again; including grapefruits and adjacent fruits, smoked meats, and a couple of other things.
6. An assortment of different side-effects from the medication itself, ranging from mild to pretty serious.

The exact degree of some of these things will vary, depending on the needed dose I end up with.

But however it goes, this transplantation is a one-way street that means I will never have a 'worry-free life' again, from a health perspective, not even temporarily.