Physical Therapy

We're slowly coming up to eight months post-transplant. In the last month, I've seen continued improvement with my energy level, although I'm still not anywhere near I was before the procedure. But those days of constant napping are long behind me. Also, my blood pressure has stabilized somewhat, allowing me to handle more of the water pills before they start to make me sick. About two months ago, my body would be carrying 5-10 pounds of fluid during the course of the day. Today, it's about 1-4 pounds of fluid -- a significant improvement. This reduction has really helped my mobility and my well being. My feet and ankles are not nearly as swollen. The edema is now bunched up on the inside of my thighs just above the knee. Overall, the swelling is much less noticable. Still not ready for wearing sandals, however.

But I'm keeping this up due my constant wear of the anti-embolism stockings, and religiously sticking to a low-sodium diet. A day or two of not doing these things and I start swelling like a pig, and well, all bets are off. It's very frustrating with this upkeep, but I keep reminding myself that my situation has dramatically improved over the last few months.

One of the long-term effects of this nephrotic syndrome is severe protein and albumin loss in the urine. Your body requires a certain amount of protein on a regular basis to survive. Wikipedia states:

Protein is an important macronutrient to the human diet, supplying the body's needs for nitrogen and amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Mammals cannot synthesize all 20 amino acids, so protein from the diet is necessary for life and the amino acids that cannot be synthesized by the body are known as essential amino acids. The exact amount of dietary protein needed to satisfy these requirements, known as an RDA may vary widely depending on age, sex, level of physical activity, and medical condition.

Protein deficiency can lead to symptoms such as fatigue, insulin resistance, hair loss, loss of hair pigment, loss of muscle mass, low body temperature, hormonal irregularities, as well as loss of skin elasticity...

For the last eight or nine months, my protein absorption has been cut by nearly half. As a result, I am starting to feel long-term effects of protein deficiency. The most apparent side-effect is muscle wasting. I have lost nearly all of my muscle in my arms and legs, and they are almost always in pain due to have fluid pressing on them for several months. While I may be starting to improve, my protein re-absorption has not kicked in yet.

As a result, it's been recommend to me to begin some sort of physical therapy to stop the muscle wasting. Boston Medical Center offers help for patients through their physical rehabilitation program. They have an excercise room for you to, well, exercise, and provide you with a personal trainer. I may begin this program as early as the middle of next month. I figure that this would be a more productive way to get my strength back than buying a copy of Suzanne Somers' Thighmaster Gold.