3 weeks post liver transplant: when will I feel better?

@lovemygsd - Good morning and Welcome! Thank you for sharing this 'healing -time-formula' that was shared with you. I am happy that it worked well for you and that you are now 7 years past the serious pain that you have mentioned.

Lovemygsd, Did you have a liver transplant in 2015? Was the serious pain that you have mentioned related to surgery recovery, or were there any other complications? How are you doing now?

I got mine in 2015. I was in serious pain for six months. I was 57. They told me one month of recovery for every 10 year increment in age you are.

Hello Sir,
Remember first, God has a plan for us or we wouldn't have been given a chance at a new life. He hasn't yet shared it with us, but we WILL know when we need to step up!
We are close in age as I am 67. I received my transplants of a liver and kidney 3 days before my birthday on February 10,2021. I had an ERCP 6 months ago to open up a bile duct stricture that happened over a year after transplant. I have another one scheduled for October 20th to remove the stint that they installed.
Sorry to hear of the scarring of your new liver. I was a drinker years ago that set off my cirrhosis which in turn affected my portal vein and eventually killed my kidneys.
I hope yours doesn't start to leak fluid into your body cavity. Towards the end prior to transplant I had to receive a parasenthesis twice a week as I didn't pee anymore. Weekly average of 12 liters. Not to scare you but that's what I had go through.
Your liver complications suck. My first kidney let me down. It did function well enough to avoid dialysis, but not to do the job required.
As I said earlier in this letter, God must have a plan for us. We both know how hard it is to be blessed with an organ, but I was blessed with 2 kidneys in 9 months as on November 12th I was so blessed with one.
Have faith in God my friend and I am sure you will receive that second liver.
Miracles happen everyday, and right now we are two of them! Always remember that my friend.
Better days lie ahead for you.
FireCat

hi FireCat some one asked me to contact you she is RoseMary and I believe we have some in common I am 66 years old and had a liver transplant since February 14-2020 all this time follow directions of Doctor and put all my energy I have to recuperate. I was extremely happy and to be grateful with God. After 9 ERCP because of my bile ducts on December 2021 all my liver functions were fine but in February 2022 they found our I have Portal Hypertension and my transplanted liver start with cirrosis. Fell bad at that time buy now I have faith in God and I accepted God decision but still fighting and follow my Doctor guide which is Medicine to control the Portal Hypertension, then if this does not work, next the TIPS (bypass the liver) and in a long run the second transplant

@arqui02000, I want you to meet @firecat because you and he have something on common - a 2nd transplant to replace your 1st one. His is a kidney, while yours is a liver, the emotions and the feelings about a second transplant are surely similar.
-You can click the "In response to" and read his experience.

Good Morning,
I understand how you feel!! I am 9 months post LT and feel decent, but I remember in the beginning feeling like “when will I ever feel better”. I got depressed as well. I was weak, nauseous, hated the taste of food, fatigued and generally felt like crap. I even had to go back into the hospital a month after transplant because of malnutrition. They put a feeding tube in me. That was awful.
At 3 months I felt a big turnaround. I was eating more, getting stronger, and generally felt better.

I remember feeling the same way- somewhat guilty for feeling depressed. I started seeing a therapist when I found out I had cancer. She is also a cancer survivor. I still see her occasionally. She was a lifesaver!!
Just take a day at a time and know you will feel better. Forums like this have been very helpful for me. Take Care

Hello Rose,
Wow, I wasn't even diagnosed yet in 2009! So glad to hear your innards are happy yet after all these years. I was diagnosed in 2014 with cirrhosis that they were just keeping an eye on. I used to drink quite a bit but quit in 2011. In 2020 my liver started going south taking my kidneys with it. I didn't pee for months having a parasenthesis twice a week to remove an average of 12 liters of fluid per week and at the end dialysis 3 times a week. What a schedule to stay alive. My last test to achieve transplant status was a heart cath that shut my kidneys down from the contrast. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it changed my meld score from 25 to 29. Two weeks later a got gifted with my first transplant two days before my birthday. How's that for a gift? Turned wrong in the hospital bed and fractured my L4 vertebrae to yet! Yes God thru many challenges my way.
You asked what I am enjoying now? Thanking God by rejoining my church choir no. 1, doing fun things with my wife again, watching my mother continue to stay healthy at 89, watching my two sons ( now men) one single and one married a ND has blessed us with two beautiful grandchildren.
I live in northern Wisconsin and was transplanted at UW Hospital and Clinic in Madison.
Being from the north my hobbies are ATVING and Snowmobiling on the hundreds of miles of trails we are blessed with living in a national forest.
Enough about me. I hope you continue to enjoy your second chance at life and continue to cheer on others as ourselves.
Best wishes, FireCat

Hi, @firecat and Welcome to Connect! What an amazing experience you have shared and what a beautiful tribute to your faith and your commitment to hanging i and getting better. It sounds like you are well on the road to your new life with your new organs.
I am also a liver and kidney transplant recipient - so I am especially happy to meet you. I got my transplant in 2009 and both are happy (my doctor's words). I was extremely weak before my transplant, in fact I had been transported to Mayo Rochester from ICU in Kentucky and needed emergency dialysis due to acute (hepatorenal) kidney failure. My liver failed due to Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) which was diagnosed aprox 8 years earlier.
I am happy that you are feeling so good now! What are some things that you are able to enjoy now that you are feeling better?

I had a liver/kidney transplant in February 2021. My liver worked fine right away but my kidney didn't work for nearly two weeks. Talk about stress and depression, wow. But I kept my faith and things started getting better. Then one day I called for help to go to the bathroom, sat up to wait for help, hanging my feet off the bed and my phone slipped from my gown. Twisting to catch it I broke my L4 vertebrae in my back on top of my other problems. But I hung in there and got better. Yes depression tried to enter my life then I remembered that I now have a second chance at life because someone lost theirs that I might live and I thanked God and things seemed better.
A few months later they told me my new kidney was failing and they would try to get me on the list again. Through the grace of God I was blessed with another kidney in November of 2021. I am now feeling the best I have in years my friend. Just hang in there and let nature take its course. Trust me healing takes time. Try taking your mind off things when you get down and thank God for the blessings you have received. Without the liver you probably would be dead now as would I.
Your water retention will go away.
Hope this helps 🙏

@msfins, I hope that you are enjoying a sunny afternoon like I am today. Please, let us know how you are feeling now that you are beyond the first 3 weeks of surgery and recovery.
Have you attempted to start a journal? What are your thoughts about journaling as a way to support yourself and move through the difficulties that you have encountered?