Outpatient Care and Monitoring
Posttransplant success depends on your ability to take multiple medications daily (up to 40 pills a day) and the ability to maintain a rigorous follow-up schedule, especially early posttransplant. Exercising and eating a heart-healthy diet are also keys to success.
You will be taking multiple medications, some of which are immunosuppressant medications which prevent the body from rejecting the heart. These medications are needed for life. Stoppage of these medications would lead to death.
Endomyocardial biopsies – used to diagnose rejection within the heart – are done as an outpatient procedure which lasts about a half-hour. They must be done weekly in the early posttransplant phase at Ohio State. As time goes on, the biopsies are spread further apart, and at five-years posttransplant, only a yearly biopsy is performed.
Some degree of rejection during the posttransplant period is normal and somewhat expected. Adjustment of medications may be made and/or IV medications used to treat the rejection. Rejection is very treatable if detected early. This is why frequent biopsies are performed.
After clearance by your doctor, you can, and are encouraged to, return to work. You will still be followed and evaluated annually by our transplant team; your transplant coordinator will be an important part of your recovery.
Be aware that you will experience up and down days. Transplant is not a “cure” and has its own set of challenges. However, a heart transplant allows you to increase the quality of your life and extend your life by many years.
Back to the Heart Transplant section.
Back to the Transplant landing page.