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Tremors as a Side Effect of Transplant Meds
One of the more prevalent side effects from lung transplantation is having trembling and shaking of your hands. When I awoke after my lung transplant I noticed shakiness in my hands. The shakiness felt like it was not under my control. My hands and fingers did not want to respond to the messages my brain was sending. This was frustrating. My hands felt swollen even though there weren’t any signs of this. I was in the intensive care unit (ICU) for several days after the surgery, and I didn’t need to do anything but relax.
When I was moved to the transplant floor, the first thing I noticed was I could barely hold a writing utensil or text on a phone. The ordeal was frustrating to say the least. Writing was out of the question. My penmanship was something to be desired before the transplant, and now my printing was not legible. Eating was a disaster for the first couple of days. The task of moving food from my plate to my mouth was an awkward an inefficient task; especially since the first couple days I had a soft diet, mostly consisting of soup. Holding a phone was ok, but texting or navigating through websites was a difficult undertaking. The shakiness of my fingers and hands did not allow me to have any type of dexterity.
I spoke to the doctors about this problem and unfortunately, hands shaking and trembling is a side effect of the group of medicines I am prescribed. They stated these symptoms would go away from 9 months to a year. In my particular case their estimation was correct. By 9 months the trembling and shakiness I had in my hands had subsided. I felt lucky because my symptoms were better with each passing day. When I go to clinic, I always observe and talk to other transplant patients and how they are recovering. I am always drawn to their hands. The trembling of the hands appears to be a side effect majority of the patients have. I am interested in how many others in our forum who have been through a transplant have encountered trembling and shaking as a side effect.
Have you ever experienced tremors or other new symptoms/side effects after transplantation, medication changes, etc? If so, how did you adjust?
Sometimes, symptoms and/or side effects can be permanent; what are strategies that you have used to cope with these permanent changes?
Have you ever had to change your daily routine due to medication side effects or post-transplantation side effects?
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