Holidays: Celebration or Challenge for Transplant Families

The Holiday Season is fast approaching
- Are Holidays a Challeng or a Celebration for you as a transplant patient?
What are some of your plans for celebrating?
What are some challenges that you are anticipating?
What questions do you have as you get ready for your holiday activities?

All members are invited. To get us into the holiday mood, I am tagging members who participated last year:
@cehunt57 @myfablife @blbird33 @chickytina @cmael @katebw @gingerw @ajdo129 @jackie421blfdgurl - I hope to see you soon!

Thank you. In June I was able to take a 2 week trip as long as I got a blood draw mid trip. Because I was going to minutes away from Duke hospital if anything was wrong, both Mayo and I felt all would be okay for my trip.
I saw 36 friends while I was there. It meant the world to me to finally (after 4 years) be return to a place where I had lived for 47 years and to thank all my friends for supporting me by email throught my transplant journey.
ajdo129

I would ask your doctor, if you could go for a couple of days, doesn’t hurt to ask

Hi Rosemary,
Apologies for letting a few days pass before responding. Generally I like responding with positive comments and creative solutions so I hesitated to answer your "how do you plan to celebrate your 1 year anniversay?"
6 weeks ago I was looking forward to my 1 year marker and I have been planning to see my NC friends gathered over 49 years of living in Durham Chapel Hill area. In 2021 I had tckets to see them (2 years after moving to AZ) when I had to cancel my trip 3 days before my departure because my blood test said something was seriously wrong with my liver.
In the past 6 weeks my blood draws have spiked in liver enzymes after every 4th week draw. Mayo being vigilant called me in for an immediate biopsy to be sure I wasn't going through acute liver rejection. Each time I had to cancel any plans I had made for that week.
Now instead of looking forward to my 1st annivetsay of my transplant, I sit on meedles waiting to see results of my blood tests and any plans I make I add a proviso that I might need to cancel. So far the biopsies are "unremarkable " but we have no idea what is causing the spiking liver enzymes.
I fear that I won't be able to see my NC friends, especially my friend of 51 years who recently was diagnosed with blood and bone marrow cancer.
It's odd how the immediate calls for a biopsy remind me of my and my liver's fragility. So I am just celebrating each day, making loose plans if any and hoping that I can still see my friends in NC.
Barbara

I am really late coming to this discussion but I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and has started the New Year with hope and joy.

As I mentioned, I had Covid at the beginning of the year. I tested positive on December 29th and was finally negative on January 18th. So my year didn't start out great but my symptoms are all gone so I am fine now and totally back to normal.

I always wear a mask whenever I am inside stores, even if they don't seem crowded, or if I am at a crowded outdoor gathering. I try to be reasonable though. A year after my transplant I had Legionairre's disease in December (2017). When the doctor came into my room on the day I was being discharged I asked him if I should avoid holiday gatherings. He crouched down next to me and said that they didn't get me a new liver so I could stay home and look at four walls, to go out and enjoy myself, being careful when I do and obviously staying away from anyone who was coughing or might possibly have any type of germs. Of course things are a bit riskier now with Covid and both RSV and the flu around but I think the same advice applies. The "tripleldemic" has really waned now though.
It had especially high numbers in the Northeast which is where I live but now we can breathe easier. We do have to live our lives being conscious of limitations. I really don't care if I am the only person in a store with a mask on. It's what's best for me.
JK