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Liver transplant - Let's support each other
Transplants | Last Active: 5 days ago | Replies (1623)Comment receiving replies
Hello everyone, My name is Brandon and I'm a 45 year old male who received a liver transplant in April 2020, so it has not even been 2 months since my transplant. I had some complications with my small colon and my bilirubin number is still high. The doctors are monitoring it and hopefully it will slowly but continuously come down. As I'm sure many are, I'm anxious to feel energetic and overall physically capable of doing normal activities again. I know that exercise plays a major part in the healing process and building stamina. I'm curious as to what types exercise are best and safest to attempt at this stage of my recovery. I know that walking is very important, and I have also tried to incorporate some light resistance bands to increase muscle mass in my arms. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Replies to "Hello everyone, My name is Brandon and I'm a 45 year old male who received a..."
Hi Brandon! Congrats on a successful transplant. I had my liver transplanted 13 months ago and was told not to do any exercise for the first few months. I had to walk up and down stairs, which took a lot out of me—I was 39 and in really good health other than the whole acute liver failure, acute renal failure, and acute respiratory failure thing—but did help me re-gain strength and mobility. I also did a lot of PT at home (asked the hospital PT staff for tips before I was discharged), specifically to gain enough strength to sit up and stand up without rolling on my side or twisting and depending on my arms!
My point is: The strength will come back slowly but surely just by re-training your body to do everyday “normal” things. Or maybe you’ve already passed that hurdle (congrats if so!). I totally get the anxiousness, but you don’t want to push it.
Resistance bands are great but make sure your doctor agrees this soon post-surgery. Even if your staples are out, there are still a lot of internal stitches (and scar tissue), and the last thing you want is to rip those or—God forbid—get an incisional hernia. I hear those are painful 😬
Have you tried planks? Those worked wonders for initially rebuilding my overall and, most importantly, core strength. But ask your doctors first! 😁
Hi, @brantodd1 welcome to Connect.
Congratulations on your transplant. Isn’t it great being on this side of it?
I’m a bit over 3.5 years post liver transplant. I would definitely ask your transplant team if there are any types of exercises you should not pursue. I presume you are still having check-ups fairly frequently so you should ask at your next appointment. I know that when the incision was healed I could do water exercises, which at that time were my primary exercises.
Everybody and every transplant center is different which is why you need to direct this question to them. It may be a bit early for many exercises but there are some they will probably approve like walking and biking. After having PT I started at the gym doing the exercises I had done there. My PT was initially at home, a Medicare benefit, and then outpatient where I used a number of machines.
I’m sure with your attitude you will be back doing all types of things in no time. It really was not that long for me.
JK
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I'm One Year out. The Resistance Bands are great. Just move up to the Dark Blue (higher resistance) band if possible. Walking is important, I started just circling inside the house. I also had in-home physical therapy, that was a tremendous help. Get in home one on one therapy - not one of those therapy mills. Work on your balance, this is where I needed the most help.