@mpow00 hi there! Congratulations on your surgery! I am 18 months post liver transplant. Everyone "recovers" at different times. You may get impatient but go slow and let your body guide you. After my initial surgery they had to open me back up. I had just had the staples removed and then I had to be stapled back up again.
I think I was ready to drive about 6-7 months post surgery. I still have numbness across my abdomen and don't expect to ever get any feeling back. I still get a sharp pain every now and then when I twist my abs. (pain on the right side on the incision site) even though I have been at the gym working out since Jan 2020 then at home. I found sleeping on my back painful and am a side sleeper. In hospital I was in agony with back pain. I started experimenting on my side after the staples were taken out. I would prop my pillows behind my back and lie half on my side leaning back onto the pillows. A long body pillow would work great. As for the bile duct..well..mine was blocked and I've had 4 ERCPs (procedure to insert stent). 2 failed and 1 they inserted a plastic tube which led to the 4th procedure when a metal stent was inserted. I contracted pancreatitis all 4 times which is debilitatingly painful. Each ended in a week + hospital stay. I'm booked to have this metal stent removed June 22nd. I'm praying for a successful outcome without pancreatitis. Unfortunately these procedures held my recovery back by at least 6 months.
My story is just that, my story. Some people recover at a faster rate others slower. Praying that your recovery is a speedy one.

Hi @mpow00, I'd like to add my welcome along with @gaylea1. MPow, you'll notice that I moved your message to this related discussion where people are asking questions post transplant. Here you'll meet @jsw @btwest6 @gaylea1 @gphetteplace @loungingsofa70 @jerrynord @michaelswaim @rosemarya @contentandwell and others. I'm confident that they will have thoughts to add about driving, side sleeping and watching the bile ducts.

You may also be interested in these discussions:
- Liver transplant support group https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/liver-support-group/
- Living Life after your Transplant https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/living-life-after-your-transplant/

@mpow00, Congratulations on your transplant and your ongoing recovery. At three weeks, you are still healing and your body is adjusting to your new liver and the high doses of medications. Numbness is normal, and does feel strange at first. Over time you will not notice it. I am 11 years post transplant, and I had to refer to my take home booklet about driving. It looks like 6 weeks is the time listed for driving. However, a lot will depend on how you feel and whether your medications are affecting you. In the beginning, I was very weak due to being very ill before transplant. When I was on high doses of my antirejection medications, I had a difficult time with concentration and focus, so I chose not to drive for a longer time.
As @gaylea has already shared, pillows make wonderful padding and props. I even found the couch more comfortable than my bed because I could pillow-and-prop up against the back of the couch.

How is the team monitoring your bile duct flow?

We live in a very small town with no traffic. No stop lights. My husband drove the few blocks to the store at about 5 weeks post transplant. Longer drives (such as several hours) we still share driving or I drive because driving causes him to have dry eyes and he is a little less confident in areas that are unfamiliar than he used to be.

After the staples were out and drains were all out and a couple of weeks of healing...maybe around 4-5 weeks post transplant he was able to get comfortable on his side. We also added a 4” foam topper to our bed, which helped a lot!

We are hoping this transplant lasts his lifetime! Hope not to ever do it again, so going to take meds on schedule and do everything in our power to make it last. If it ever comes to that—we know God will give us the strength when we get there, but try not to worry now. We are ready to live again!

Hope you are healing well.

@mpow00 Congratulations on your transplant. It's great to finally be over that hurdle, on the other side and well again.

I was driving fairly soon after, but I really had an amazing recovery so I am not sure what is typical. I think that mainly depends on how you feel and if you are still on any pain relieving drugs that will impair your driving. Knowing I couldn't drive until I was off of the drugs gave me incentive to get off of them as soon as I could.

I never had numbness after the first week, nor did I have any discomfort from my incision. I have to credit my incredible transplant surgeon at Mass General for that. I am sure that the majority of transplant surgeons are wonderful but of course, I am biased.

I always preferred my side but I did adjust to sleeping on my back. It is something you can adjust to. I was on my back in the hospital so it just carried over.

I have encountered no problems since my transplant other than some effects from the medications. They had to change me from tacrolimus to sirolimus because it was causing an increase in my creatinine number, and the tacrolimus triggered lactose intolerance which I still have now on sirolimus. Initially, they had me drinking 80-100 ounces of non-caffeinated liquid a day but that didn't help enough.
Also, if you are on prednisone long-term as I am, be aware that it damages your bones. You should be active in trying to offset that so as to not develop osteoporosis, which I have.
JK