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Patient's Guide to Heart Transplant Surgery
Staying Healthy After Heart Transplant
W hat You Will Need to Do
The most important part of the heart transplant is keeping yourself healthy after the transplant. You will need to do the following after you are discharged from the hospital:
- Make many visits to the transplant center, and keep all of your appointments. These frequent visits will only last for the first few months.
- Take your medicines properly. This is extremely important.
- Let the staff at the transplant center know about any problems you may have that may prevent you from keeping your appointments or taking your medicines.
- It is up to you to watch your weight and to exercise regularly.
Your health and the health of your new heart transplant is dependent on your doing your part.
Why You Will Need to Keep Your Appointments
- Your body may begin to reject your new heart, and YOU may not be able to tell. Although the signs of rejection are experienced by some patients, most patients are not able to tell when their bodies are starting to reject their new hearts.
- If your body is rejecting the new heart, your doctors and nurses CAN tell.
- Your doctors and nurses will watch you closely looking for signs of heart rejection and side effects of the medications that you are taking.
> Next: Medications
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