Mike had a liver biopsy last week.
It has been 2 years since his transplant and I'm not 100% on whether their protocol is to do biopsy at every year, at 1 and 2 years, or if Mike's situation suggested it was time to take a peek in there.
In addition, as I have posted elsewhere, he may be taking an anti-viral treatment in the months. We are waiting for news about
whether he will be accepted into that program. More documentation was requested today.
The liver biopsy was summarized:
Changes consistent with Acute cellular rejection, moderate.
Concomitant recurrent chronic hepatitis C, estimated mild activity.
Staging pending.
Okay, we can deal with that. The TP coordinator said that they would keep his prograf at 1 in the AM and .5 in the PM for now as his kidneys have responded well to lowering the prograf for the first time since TP and they LIKE that.
They have increased his Cellcept from 250 mg twice a day to 500 mg twice a day.
His BP meds have been increased this week as well.
He has been feeling quite well, doing more outside the home and actually puttering at projects at home as well. Fixed a leaky toilet, changed the A/C filters, repaired the garage door. In addition, he has taken the boxes we moved here from CT 7 years ago and stuffed in closets and garage and has been going through them. 12 boxes down to 3 boxes and they have pictures of the kids over the years. He says I have to go through those. I think it is a really good sign that he can organize and follow through on projects. He has been very busy at his computer as well.
I hope adding more meds doesn't cause a back slide in his energy, focus and enthusiasm for "getting things done." Who cares, really, whether they get done or not in the scheme of things, but feeling good about
himself is HUGE.
The rest of the pathology report is a complete confusion to me. I tried to look up the words, but realize I need 6 PhDs in microbiology to understand what they are saying. I think that there are cellular changes that indicate inflammation that can be present with various disease processes. I am assuming the Hep C causes this stuff.
Here it is if anyone has anything helpful to help us interpret what this might suggest. I am hoping Jamie or Connie take a look at this...they are both pretty up on the technical words:
There is a moderate intensity, portal and periportal lymphocyte rich inflammatory infiltrate that extends beyond the limiting plate and contains occasional eosinophils. Occasional plasma cells are also present. There is focal lymphocytic cholangitis and subendothelial accumulation of inflammatory cells in some areas. There is also focal lobular inflammation, Councilman bodies and spotty steatosis. There is focal ballooning changes within hepatocytes.
Have a nice weekend folks.
Carol
Post Edited By Moderator (hep93) : 9/9/2013 9:11:09 PM (GMT-6)