The damage by the illness has been done, acute treatment is completed, and health professionals are far away. Weak, anxious, and demoralized, the patient may experience a homecoming depression. Invariably, the sick person attributes weakness to the damage done by the disease to various organs, such as the heart, lungs, or liver. However, in large part, weakness is caused by muscle atrophy and the systemic effects of immobilization. Results indicated that the better the initial state of health, the longer it took to recover the original level of strength.
Fear is an unwelcome but omnipresent houseguest after discharge from the hospital.
Most of the symptoms that frighten patients in the early posthospital days are so trivial they would have gone unnoticed before the onset of the illness. Now gun-shy, however, the patient may find any minor unusual sensation a threat. When symptoms have passed, the patient may then feel foolish, even disgusted, about being a hypochondriac. It helps the patient to know in advance that such hypersensitivity to bodily sensations is a common occurrence and that such feelings are normal and time limited. With specific measures, the time may be shortened.