Transplant Update

For the first month post-transplant, I was feeling like a teenager, walking a little bit farther each morning, getting up to 24 blocks. I was filled with energy and enthusiasm. Now I realize that was because I was on steroids!

I never knew anything about steroids, but now I can certainly understand why athletes love them. And it's not just because they can make for bigger muscles. It's because you have all the energy you need to build those muscles. Steroids are an absolute kick in the butt, a big high.

When I got off the prednizone at a month post-op, I headed into a quick decline. I became sluggish, weak, lethargic, exhausted, fatigued. Carrying a basket of laundry to the wash machine was at the upper limit of my abilities. I would be out of breath after washing the dishes or getting dressed. Taking Rasputin for a walk was a real chore.

Then my weight started to increase, a little at first, then 16 pounds in a few days. Last Friday I was put on Lasix to drain the excess water. In the first 12 hours, I lost seven pounds; in the next 24, I lost three. Still have a few pounds to go. Losing that weight has made so much of a difference. The water put a tremendous strain on my heart. It curtailed my activity to an absolute minimum. Now I feel so much better.

So many somewhat minor symptoms that add up to a general malaise:
* An occasional tremor in my right thumb and forefinger when I'm holding a piece of paper, a book, or a utensil. This is due to prograf, one of the immune suppressants. Hopefully, in time I can reduce the dose.
* My left leg usually is somewhat to severely impaired from the break a year ago in Brooklyn. I can feel the rod poking me in the hip, the knee, or the side of my leg. Going up stairs is painful. I would have thought that by now I would not feel the metal rod at all and that I'd be walking normally. Not so.
* Then there are the sometimes piercing pains in my lower abdomen, where the largest transplant scar is located. My stomach is still swollen from a huge internal bruise from the surgery. The blood is very slowly being reabsorbed, though the doctors tell me this is taking an unusually long time.

Of course, I am not complaining. I am so happy to be free of the nightly dialysis treatments and the foot-long piece of tubing emerging from my abdomen. I am sure that things are on the mend and that soon I will be feeling like a teen-ager for the third time. And we all know that three's a charm.