Post kidney transplant & rough recovery: Will it get better?

Please stay hopeful. I too had a huge lymphocele and wore an ugly drain for weeks. Finally had surgery to redirect the lymph fluid and all is now fine. My creatinine is down to 1.8 and ‘Bean’ (my new kidney) just celebrated his first birthday. It will get better!

My husband is coming up on his 3-year kidneyversary in February. It was tough to manage everything at first. My suggestion is to journal EVERYTHING. What you eat/drink, meds, exercise, good sleep/bad sleep. We had a daily notebook that he tracked everything in. We were able to start to see some patterns. More exercise = creatinine higher. More plant-based proteins = creatinine lower. Just to provide a few examples. With that log of information, we were able to work closely with the transplant team, dietitian, and other specialists to really identify what was working and what was not. It also provided the team with valuable information when adjusting dosages of medications and similar matters. I think it is common to take a while to figure out what works for you and get into sustaining. Good luck!

Thank you for this feedback. My husband is on the kidney transplant list and sometimes I wonder how entailed it would be to keep track of medicine, diet, exercise, etc. I like the idea of keeping a journal.
Good luck "nnr" on getting on track soon.

Thank you!

@nnr Congratulations on your new kidney! Please remember it takes quite a while to get adjusted to a new organ, new medications, new life-style. Please be gentle on yourself. The doctors will be monitoring your test results and adjusting medications. They will encourage healthy eating, moderate exercise, etc to help yourself.

This transplant was a major surgery, and your body had to get used to everything.
Ginger

Hello,
I am now in my tenth month after transplant. So far so good. I get stressed out sometimes to keep track of medications but in general I am very grateful.
Because of Tacrulimus, my hair was getting thinner. It is the side effect of this med. I added biotin to my supplements allowed by the care team. I read that some members mentioned certain types of shampoo to help hair grow. If you used one that helped, please let me know.
Thanks very much.

@nnr, like @gingerw said, you've had major surgery and some significant setbacks. It takes time for the body to recover and find your new normal.

How are you doing today?

@future
I have set the alarm on my iPhone to alert me to my medicine time. And have found that a 7 day pill organizer works great for keeping track of meds.
I’m sharing a photo in hope that it might be helpful.
I’m filling it now!

@rosemarya I use a very similar one but it also has a larger box that you place all of the single day boxes in to give one week all together. Very helpful. AS I begin my 80th year on this planet, remembering stuff definitely not as easy as it used to be.