Back again  :) have my two days of testing starting tomorrow at 6:30 am

Review donor eval
Fasting blood draw & lohexol
EKG
Chest x-ray
Apt. With Nutritionist
Lohexol (2nd time)
Transplant social worker
Lohexol & ABO blood test
Check out with nurse.
Should be done by 11:30. Have to go to work at 5:00 :P

Friday May 30th (yay!! My birthday)

1:00pm
Transplant neurologist
Transplant surgeon
Transplant coordinator
CTR

Should be done by 3:00 and going to see Maleficent with a group of friends. I'm excited to get this step done. And move forward.

Back on track to this topic haha. I wants to know what other people's experiences were with getting time off for recovery? I have worked at my job for over 3 years. Never taken more then a day off at a time due to illness. I am the only receptionist at the salon I work at. My boss is very understanding and has compassion but how did everyone bring it up and let them know you will need some time off ?

Thanks for reading
Haley

Good luck with your tests today. You do have a busy day!

Regarding time off work, I didn't have this issue as we run our own business. Your donor team should be able to give you an estimate and length of time for your recovery stages. As an example you may be able to return to work early with restrictions such as no lifting. Your team can give you data regarding the donor procedures they currenty use.

Dear Halpal,

I went home after two nights in the hospital.  I returned to work after the 3rd week, but wish I had one more week off.  I was still very tired.  Minimum would probably be two weeks, but leave room to extend. You will have lifting restrictions for longer than that.

Love, elephant

I spent one night in the hospital and returned to work after 3 weeks.  I could have gone after 2 but I took another week to help my recipient out.  I was self-employed at the time, so I wasn't getting paid for any of that time off.

Some people take as long as 6 weeks to get back to work, it depends on how your body reacts to having major surgery.

Hi,

I was in the hospital for 4 days and off work for 3 weeks.  I was back to Crossfit after 6 weeks and haven't looked back.  I really didn't have any issues with my employer (it's a large company though, so not as much of a potential issue as for a smaller business).

Best of luck to you and your recipient!

Take at least 2-3 weeks off. While you may be out of the hospital in few days, the follow up, checks, tests, etc and not to forget the emotional piece may take some time to recover. Also, the focus of everyone's attention would be the transplant recipient who would have a much longer recovery process so please make sure that you have some champion at your end as well.

Thanks for giving someone the gift of life. You'll feel proud everyday looking at that person.