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Heart transplant: recovering but steroids are affecting behavior
Transplants | Last Active: Dec 21, 2020 | Replies (91)Comment receiving replies
Hi Amy,
Thanks for the information. Hope all is well now. His steroids have been decreased to 7.5mg a day and next week down to 5mg a day. Can't wait for him to be off of them completely. They changed his Cellcept late last week and he will be coming off of Bactrim next week. He is currently taking Bactrim only three days a week. Hoping with the change in meds the GI issues will improve. His white blood cell count is really low so he is currently staying home and no visitors until that starts to come up. That really hurt him emotionally. He will start a low dose of Zoloft this week for a few months to get him through these harder times. He is extremely weak and has lost a lot of muscle strength and balance. He had home therapy the first couple of weeks post transplant and was released. As the GI issues increased he stopped doing his exercises. I was able to set up home therapy again, he has had two visits but they will only come out one more time. I will have to make some calls to get additional visits. Three visits will not help him recover his strength.
Thanks again @amynewheart and I hope you are doing well with your new heart!
Replies to "Hi Amy, Thanks for the information. Hope all is well now. His steroids have been decreased..."
@fatherscaregiver yes if he has been without therapy that long i agree he needs more then two sessions. You may want to see if he can get into outpatient therapy at a facility which to me was much more beneficial. Hoping the changes in his meds make a difference: ) with GI issues. I hope things get better for you both soon. Will they not let him go out if he wears a mask and during low volume times. Even if he could get out once a week i think that would help.
Unfortunately i am hospital righr now in severe rejection: ( hoping to get to go home today. Good luck with everything! Keep us posted
@amynewheart, I just said a prayer in your honor. I hope all goes well and you get to go home today.
Rosemary
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@fatherscaregiver, I hope that your dad's GI issues begin to improve soon and that he will feel like eating something.
You are a wonderful daughter and caregiver to be there for him. My husband was/is my caregiver; I could not have done it without him.
You mentioned that he is not able to have visitors due to the white blood cell count, and that he is 'hurt emotionally'. I'm just curious if your dad is able to communicate online or receive phone calls from friends? When I was too weak to talk on phone, I listened. And when I was too weak to keyboard on line, my husband sent my messages, and I enjoyed reading the replies.
Prayers and hugs,
Rosemary