Post-Transplant: At-Home Care-Giver Issues

Your at-home care-giver is a crucial part of your out-patient post-transplant – don’t underestimate the role this person will play in your recovery.  They may end up filling multiple roles of nurse, maid, cook, and psychologist, all rolled into one.  The stress upon them will be particularly high because you may not recognize how difficult a job they have, given your own physical and emotional state.


Once you finally return home your physical and emotional condition will probably be influenced by a combination of two things; your physical state before entering the hospital and the length of your radiation or chemo regime.  Take my case, for example.  I was extremely out of shape before I went into the hospital, and once there I had a pretty aggressive treatment of multiple daily dosages of chemotherapy over eight days.  The stress of an additional fifteen days in the hospital after that also took its toll.  When I finally was allowed to return home I was euphoric, but that emotion was short-lived.  I was physically weak and emotionally lethargic, with some very real physical side-effects, like mucositis, still remaining.  Overall I was depressed about my condition and worried about the future outlook.  That is not at all unusual under the circumstances.



Your emotions may play a bigger role in your overall condition than you realize at this time, but your caregiver will certainly be aware of every mood swing.  It’s difficult to be so dependent upon someone else, but it is equally difficult to have to take care of someone under these conditions.  The ‘fuzzy brain’ condition so common to radiation and chemotherapy will no doubt persist for a while, and make it difficult to be perfectly aware of everything.  However that awareness can help you change your own behavior to the advantage of both yourself and your care-giver, so to that end I’m going to suggest the keeping of a daily journal at this point in your recovery.