Transplant Land Bumps 10/19/2011

I’m going to continue on this theme of the ups and downs, the bumps per se of transplant-land for the next few blogs. I’ve had a bit more time to think, a bit more insight, and this is what I have come up with. While it has been 9 months since my transplant, I still have one foot in the hospital. It’s not just the biopsies, clinic visits and blood draws. These past few months especially have been trying. The rejection episodes are really scary. It has been touch-and-go as to whether I would have to be admitted for the big gun drugs or whether the high dose steroids would suffice. That was very difficult and probably even more stressful on my husband who was done with the blood pressure cuff and thermometer in the family room months ago. Having been through 8 years of heart failure, being placed on the transplant waiting list, going through transplantation and recovery and having a somewhat difficult post transplant course because of the drugs has been tough on everyone. We try hard as a couple to shield our son from the day-to-day stuff and that too is hard: careful of conversations, of what phone calls will come at what time, what bags are packed and where, what plans are made for whom. Will I have a massive, debilitating migraine that will ruin plans for the day for all of us? Will I be in the hospital for a week or go to the beach as planned? That gets tough, probably more so on others than on me.  I can just roll with it, or try, and say it’s all good. The author is a heart failure patient going through the post-transplant process.