Heather: Her family hoped that Heather had come through the worst of it. A few days after her liver transplant, she had become confused. She had been wide-awake and restless in the night. But still, it had seemed as if she were dreaming at times.
One night she thought that she was in a hotel. I want to go for a walk on the beach, she had said. It was all the family and staff could do to keep her from getting out of bed. It was difficult to see her like this. But the transplant team had said that they knew how to deal with this problem. They were correct when they said that she would recover. One week after it all began, Heather was herself again.
A few days later, the nursing staff tried to teach Heather how to take her anti-rejection and other drugs herself. But Heather couldn't seem to keep it all straight. She had always had a good memory. But now she kept making mistakes with the drug amounts.
This is a typical story of confusion after liver transplant. What is important for everybody to remember is that even after the most obvious symptoms of confusion disappear, mild memory problems can persist. It is not that the memory problems are permanent. They are not. But memory is very sensitive to any insult and will be the last mental ability to recover fully. It may take two or more weeks for memory and concentration to recover fully after a few days of delirium.