Emotional well-being
Having a transplant should have a positive effect on your life. However it is still a major life event. You may have mood swings and feel stressed or depressed as you adjust to your transplant, and as your body responds to your anti-rejection medications. It is not unusual to have these feelings. The earlier you talk to someone the quicker you can get support.
You may also:
- Have to come to terms with having another person's organ inside you. Some people worry that they may develop the donor's personality but this is not possible.
- Having conflicting feelings about receiving a kidney from a deceased donor. You may feel relief and happiness at having a new kidney, but upset because the donor's family and friends are grieving.
- Be overwhelmed by feelings of being normal again
- Find that your relationships change as your family and friends adjust to you becoming more active
- Experience a roller-coaster of emotions about the possibility of rejection. You may feel anxious about attending medical appointments and then relief after being told that your transplant kidney is functioning well
- Be overwhelmed at the thought of taking many medications with their possible side effects
- Feel guilty about your transplant because there are other people still on dialysis
Many people who receive a deceased donor kidney may wonder who the kidney came from.
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