Post-Transplant Patient Care

At the Hospital

• Lung Recipient's After-Transplant Process: Overview
  Intensive Care Unit: The length of stay can vary from patient to patient; it can range from days to weeks depending upon their condition.

• What to Expect When You Wake Up
  After the surgery, you will wake up in the intensive care unit (ICU) after the anesthesia wears off. Around you, you will see lots of machines, tubes, and people. You will hear lots of beeps, bells, and talking.

• How Will I Feel After Surgery?
  After surgery, it is common to feel any or all of the following: Lack of sleep: because you are being constantly monitored, lack of good sleep is very common in the intensive care unit (ICU).

• Medical Management
  After surgery, it is common to feel any or all of the following: Lack of sleep: because you are being constantly monitored, lack of good sleep is very common in the intensive care unit (ICU).

• Exercises for the Patient
  Almost immediately after your surgery, the physical therapist will begin to work with you. Even in the earliest days after surgery, exercise is important to cut down on your chances of getting lung infections, blood clots, and bed sores.

• Visitors and Hospital Rules
  You will be in the Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit (CICU) for the first few days after surgery. Because the patients in the ICU have just had surgery and are very sick, there are certain rules that must be followed to protect the patients.

• Discharge Planning
  You will be discharged as soon as the transplant team feels that it is safe for you to live outside of the hospital. This decision is based on how you have recovered since surgery, the status of your biopsy reports, and the number of severity of any rejections or infections you have had.

At Home

• Home Monitoring
  Home monitoring helps prevent problems and complications. Your daily journal entry should include the following... Click for more...

• After Transplant Clinic Visits
  All visits include: Routine history and exam, PFT - spirometry, Oxygen saturation, Complete chemistry panel (CBC), Immunosuppressive levels, Prograf, Cyclosporine, Rapamune, Cellcept, Chest x-rays... Click for more...

• Questions to Ask About After-Transplant Care
  What medications will I need? Will the dosages change? What if I miss a dose? How should I notify you if I have problems with my medication? Will my benefits end if I am able to return to work? If so, can I resume getting benefits when I need them? Click for more...

Restrictions and Precautions

• Activity Restrictions
  Wear a mask only in hospitals or other health care facilities. May go mall shopping or to the movies. Do not take any medications other than those prescribed by the transplant team. Discuss any medication changes or additions with the transplant team.

• Chest Precautions
  You need to wait at least 6 to 8 weeks before you may start lifting weights with your arms and upper body. You must wait that long in order for your chest/incision to heal.

Complications

• Potential Long-Term Complications
  Diabetes or high blood sugar counts, high blood pressure (hypertension), kidney failure, chronic rejection,lymphoproliferative disease (cancer)...

• Colds and Viruses
  At some point you will probably get a "cold". Colds are caused by viruses and are spread most often by contaminated hands (e.g. by wiping your nose and not hand washing).

• Long-Term Care - Rejection
  The body will attack anything that is not its own. It does this because of a very complex system known as the immune system.

• Infections
  The medications we give you to prevent your immune cells from attacking and killing your new organs also prevent your immune cells from attacking other foreign objects in your body.

• Skin Problems
  The three most common skin problems following transplantation are: herpes, warts, and acne. Herpes and warts are caused by the "opportunistic" type viruses just described.