I have another surgery this coming Wednesday. I've had to go quite often since then for a surgical procedure using interventional radiology where they go in my liver and into my bile ducts to clear the blockage and change out the biliary drain. I'm dealing now with scar tissue that keeps blocking my common bile duct where it connects to my small intestines due to the transplant. It's been 6-1/2 years since my transplant and I have had very few issues up until this past September. My surgery was in July so it was quite warm. So I would walk a little around the hotel and then over the days and weeks we walked for longer periods of time and out in the neighborhood. This helps a lot with the scar tissue issues that occur with this type of surgery. One key immediately after transplant in those initial days and months is to walk some each day. As you know pain killers have their issues, especially with constipation. I was able to control pain quite well with Tylenol after being released which I was so thankful for. I only took the Percocet while in the hospital and maybe just a couple later after discharge. I had a pain pump the first-day post-transplant and then Percocet after that. They cut so many nerves during the surgery that my pain levels were really not that bad. They want you nearby in case something happens. I was only in the hospital for 5 days and then we stayed in a hotel nearby Duke Medical for a month following the transplant. Trying to keep up with everything, make sure he’s ok, and try to work which I have to do.įor me, I really did amazingly well post-transplant. Not to mention it just hard on me also as the spouse and caregiver. Can transplant really happen at any number or will it have to get way up there again? I can’t imagine him going through this another 6months. He feels as this point it will never happen until he is back in the high 30’s at least. While we are glad his kidneys have gotten some better (although his leg swelling is returning ) the roller coaster Meld score is bringing him down. They added kidneys onto the transplant when they were doing bad so now he is on the liver/kidney transplant list. So, now since he is off dialysis and kidneys are better, Meld is down to 20. While in the hospital it went up to 32 (because of the active dialysis at that time) did get call for transplant while in the hospital but as a back up and of course everything went through with the other patient ahead of him. Anyway, prehospital stay his meld was about 26 or 28. ![]() They did get a lot of fluid off of him (he’s had soooo much swelling in his legs for month before this episode) and then his kidneys got much better. He had dialysis for awhile when his kidneys were doing bad during that time. Miraculously after wks in the hospital he made it through and is actually better. ![]() He recently had been hospitalized after sepsis occurred from a medical procedure. ![]() My husband was finally put on the transplant list August 2021 (took several months to get listed waiting to identify a liver lesion that ended up benign). I also read too much on Google - so maybe I'm scaring myself over nothing. I'm not complaining - this isn't a transplant hospital.but I also hate feeling like I'm wasting everyone's time. I am hesitant to call my GI because his response last time was to go to the ER (this was just due to pain) and in the ER they tell me to follow up with the GI. In addition my bowel movements are fluctuating between light brown and a pale yellow and very foul smelling. What I'm concerned about tonight is that I have developed a semi severe pain on my right side that goes from my back straight through to my abdomen. Two things about me that have never changed but might be relevant are that I have very low platelets (30-40 range) and a huge spleen (23 cm from my last CT scan). I am currently being treated by a GI and have my first appointment with a liver dr next week. I was diagnosed with cirrhosis (caused by NASH) just over a year ago and my MELD score is 9 (as of 2 months ago). Hi friends - I'm hoping someone can give me advice on when to recognize symptoms that are serious vs symptoms that we just all put up.
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