Biopsy Today

[Roxy]

Having a biopsy today on my transplanted kidney to see if Im rejecting. Surprisingly not as nervous as I thought I would be, but Im guessing thats going to change once Im there. They're thinking the rise in creatinine might be from the cyclosporine, but they also did blood tests/tissue typing to see if my body has created new antibodies towards the kidney. Hopefully we'll have the results of the biopsy this afternoon. I think the worst part is always the waiting game to find out results, but at least it's just one day. Going to take my computer with me( if they let me use it) in hopes that the 5hours of lying flat with a weight on my stomach can at least go by a little faster!

[boswife]

Wishing you all the best with results and biopsy itself...  Hope your computer will keep ya occupied so the time will go faster.  Blessings   

[billybags]

Roxy,  my fingers legs and arms are all crossed for you. Hope things go OK.

[kellyt]

     Calming and healing thoughts going your way.  We're here.

[Roxy]

Thanks all. still in the hospital with the ten pound sandbag on my stomach. looks like we will have most results by the morning, they say its likely rejection though but we will see.

[natnnnat]

Darn it, blasted sandbags and talk of rejection. Hoping big hopes that your kidney pulls through.  Come on bean. 
Now let me see, stuck in hospital and your computer obviously works, ... is there a games section in this board somewhere?
Can't find one, but there's one at KidneyKorner, here, try these:  http://kidneykorner.com/smfbb/index.php?PHPSESSID=a608b4c1768ba17d4fdfbf82afa2ee42&action=arcade
(not that I've ever tried them, but games are fun, they say.
Also Gregory's been talking about some kind of jukebox website he was sent.  I'll ask him to send me the URL.
big love.

[natnnnat]

Jukebox:
http://upchucky.org/JukeCity/1940/OldJukes/player.htm

This takes you to the hits of 1940.  If you want to change the year, you could change it in the URL (or try using the search field...)
e.g.
http://upchucky.org/JukeCity/1999/OldJukes/player.htm

[Roxy]

Thank you. It is acute and chronic rejection. I had a hickman catheter placed today. I begin  a series of 5 rounds of plasmapharesis tomorrow to try to wash out the antibodies  that ive built against the kidney along with a series of steroids to treat the acute rejection. I will be in the hospital for a week or so.  not sure what my creatinine is at this point, but I'm hoping to get more information tomorrow.

[okarol]

Awww Roxy, I am sorry to hear this. Your transplant was right after Jenna's (Jan. 2007) and I think you're both the same age (she just turned 26 a week ago.) I hope they can rescue your kidney and keep it working for a long time. Jenna's transplant was also rejecting - at 3 years post-transplant, but she had several weeks of intense treatments of IVIG and something else, I need to look back in my posts to see what it was, and it apparently worked, because she has been stable since (nearly 2 years.) The bad thing is she lost much of her kidney function and has been steady at 3.1 creatinine - GFR 17. She is not on dialysis and so far feels good. Lately she's had to add blood pressure meds. I hope you get some good results - take care and please let us know how you're doing.

[natnnnat]

I second what okarol said.   

[paris]

Roxy, I'm sorry.  This makes me very sad.  I'll be praying the treatments stop the acute rejection.  Hope you tolerate the plasmapheresis well.  I am glad that you are in the hospital and they can take good care of you.    You have lots of us worrying about you and saying lots of prayers.

[Roxy]

Thank you  everybody. So far today ive had a.chest Xray,Ultrasound, 2 blood draws, and now the nurse is setting  up the plasmapheresis. They Are taking me off cellcept and cyclosporine and starting me on prograf again. They are also using my iv line for 3 other immunosuppressants. my creatinine is 2.3 so its still stable. It use to be around 1.9 baseline, so luckily its not too much function loss yet.  Im really weak and dizzy so I haven't been able to stand for long periods of time before getting light-headed. Hopefully that gets better.
Thanks again for your replies and thoughts.

[billybags]

Roxy wishing you well

[Roxy]

Just an update:
Today is plasmapharesis, cytogam, something with prednisone, prograf, and all the normal anti virals and stuff. No real change in creatinine though. im hoping to see some change otherwise they want to do another biopsy (which I don't see the point of if they know from the first one that the rejection is due to antibodies)which they can  test through blood tissue typing. Also not thrilled with my transplant team so far. Since i had my transplant they have all changed except my surgeon who is still on the team. Luckily, he seems to have the final say with my stuff which makes me feel a little better. There's A lack of communication between the doctors which led to me getting cellcept when I wasn't suppose to yet. On the plus side, all my nurses have been great.
crossing my fingers that I see some results.

[okarol]

I think the biopsy would show to what degree you have donor specific antibodies, not just antibodies in general. It might also give them an idea if scarring has taken place. Have they given you your lab numbers? Do you know what your prograf and Cellcept (or whatever you're taking) trough levels are?
I am glad you're being treated well! 

[Roxy]

Well, I'm out of the hospital and back in California  . The creatinine went down to 2.13 but then back to 2.23 so there wasn't a lot of change but at least it's stable and not going up. They have me on prednisone (10mg- will slowly go down to 5mg) , cellept, and prograf, along with the same post transplant meds I was on before like Valcyte, Bactrim, and Diflucan. All the treatment and medications have left me a little weak but I plan on going back to work tomorrow and just slowing down a bit and taking it easy. So far I'm tolerating Prograf better this time around. I think my trough level that they want for the prograf is between 6-8, so they are still playing with the dosage. I get labs drawn tomorrow morning so we'll see how i'm doing now that I've been out of the hospital for a few days. I have to go back in a week for my second infusion of Rituximab and to check in with the transplant team. After that they just plan on doing the tissue typing blood tests every month or so to keep track of the number of antibodies and trying to continue to manage it. We'll see what happens, but I'm hoping tomorrow's labs come back with some good news.

[Jelena]

Keeping everything crossed! Glad you are out of the hospital 

[Roxy]

Thanks!! Creatinine went from 2.3 back down to 2.11 so hopefully it just stays in this range.  The norvasc caused me to retain a lot of fluid in my legs so we stopped that ( I think it was around 6lbs!) The tissue typing test showed that the plasmapharesis and everything wasn't quite as successful as they had hoped. Only one of the antibody categories got better while the other two got worse (meaning more antibodies). We'll see what they say on Tuesday when I go back for my Rituximab infusion, but I'm hoping since the creatinine is still stable that they'll just see what the Rituximab does first and stabilize my meds and see what happens. But, I'm back to work and feeling a lot better so for now it's just wait and see!

[Neo]

Good Luck!