10 Months Post Transplant

Mike had an anniversary this past week...10 months.

He had that one setback in Month 4, where he reacted badly to a change from prograf to rapamune and wound up on the Jackson Memorial Hospital transplant floor for five days...but, that behind him, he has zoomed to better and better health.

Remembering he still has Hep C, and a really high viral load, I think he is doing great.  He'll likely need to  address that down the line with some kind of treatment again.

He can make it through a whole day, if necessary, without resting. We had a busy day Saturday with a memorial service in the afternoon, a luncheon, and then a visit with friends late in the day...no nap for Mike!

Then Sunday I drove us home, 5 hours, and that did him in...he slept on and off all day Monday and was glad for the "do nothing" day.

He had his bloodwork on the first, but we don't have the results yet. I'll post them when they come in.  We are expecting them to be good.  His color is good. His hair has returned to its former color and texture (gray and straight as an arrow), his chest hair is returning, but he is still naked as a baby on his legs...funny, a formerly hairy man with no leg hair!

Are you listening to this?  My biggest complaint is girly legs???  After knocking on death's door?  We'll take it.

He continues to complain about a torn tendon in his shoulder and is seeing someone about that.  He continues to dream of playing golf once again, if they can patch him up.  The transplant surgeon says he is good to go for that surgery, if the ortho guy really thinks he can make some improvement.  No sense in their digging around in there if they can't promise significant improvement.

Hoping all our Healing Well friends are doing well this week, or as well as can be expected.

And we encourage all our researchers out there to hurry up with the trials of non-Interferon based Hep C treatment protocols!  And one for post transplant folks too!

Hugs,

Carol aka Mama Lama from Florida

Mike had good labs back: AST/ALT 23/19. The very best for as long as I've known him. That donor liver must be perfect!

Viral Load down to 28 Million. Not great, but better. They say it goes up and down, to focus on the LFTs.

GFR low and Createnine elevated. So the prograf continues to put pressure on kidney function.

White, red, Crit and Hemoglobin all still below normal ranges.

I figure that's also from the prograf...how can you turn off an immune system and expect everything thing to work right.

So long as he feels good, he's happy!

Carol

Prograf affects kidneys, though low doses cause less of a problem and some people never have kidney problems. Usually they switch to rapamune or cellcept.

Hi ML,
For the first few months after my transplant, I took prograf and cellcept. They did away with the cellcept and then lowered my prograf to 2 mg. twice a day. Now I'm down to 1 mg. twice a day. I do know that some people can't abide prograf and take rapamune and others that are unable to take cellcept. Thank goodness we have choices.