Daily living after transplant

Usually, patients feel better immediately after surgery and continue to improve as time progresses. Recovery takes between 6 and 12 months. The transplant team will let you know when you can return to work. After the first year, you should be "back to normal." However, your lifestyle will likely change for the better. You may notice physical changes and, likely, mental, emotional, and spiritual changes as well.

Changes may be positive or negative or both.

• You may feel healthier physically because you have a new liver that functions properly. However, you may feel sick from medication side effects or have discomfort from the surgery. You may even have other medical conditions that continue or develop.
• Depending on the severity of your condition before the transplant, you may experience more mental clarity.
• Emotions will vary and may include feeling happy and ecstatic about having another chance at life. Sometimes, liver transplant recipients feel depressed considering that their donor may have died to help them. Others feel guilty because they don't believe they deserve a second chance.
• For some people, the idea of having another person's organ in their body can be uncomfortable. Having a part of one's body removed is a loss that can lead to a variety of emotions as well. If you have these feelings, you may wish to discuss them with friends or family, or with a therapist or spiritual leader.
• Some liver transplant recipients feel closer to God or feel they have been given a spiritual gift of life. Others do not have any spiritual reaction. The patients or their loved ones also may have strong religious, spiritual, or moral beliefs about transplants.

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