My Time

[Laurie]

Congratulations. Wishing you and your wife a speedy recovery. 

[angela515]

 

[waitlisted]

Things are still proceeding fine. The prograf level was bit high yesterday, so they needed to reduce the dosage and maybe because of that the creatinine stayed unchanged in 1.7 from yesterday. The doctors are expecting it to lower more tomorrow.

Some drugs (prednisone & prograf?) are causing me some feeling of heart pounding even the heart rate is not getting high and makes me feel bit shaky, also the blood sugar levels and blood pressure are still but high, but they all should get better when the drug dosage does down, I hope at least.

The biggest complain at this point of time would be the foley, which I hate, but hopefully I get rid of it tomorrow morning and then I can go home.

My wife left home today, so I am now alone here in hospital, but at least I got my laptop and web browsing is more comfortable than earlier with my cell phone. 

[Chris]

Glad your doing good. Yeah those foley catheters are a nuisance. I hate when they put those in while your awake. You'll feel better when they lower the dose I'm sure.

[donnia]

 

YEAAAA!  Congrats!  Here's to a speedy recovery 

[waitlisted]

Now I have been 3 days at home and I feel very good. The incision is has been getting better every day and I have no problems in sitting, moving sleeping on my side etc.

However there is some concern about the lab results: creatinine was stuck in in hospital on 1.7 (3 days in row) and in the clinic visits on Tue it was 1.8 and today 2.0. So , now it will be checked again tomorrow and if the direction does not change I need to go back to hospital tomorrow for biopsy.

[okarol]

Try really hydrating and see if it doesn't improve the labs. Also, if you are on Prograf, too much can also increase the creatinine. It seems likely that they would address each of these potential causes before doing a biopsy.

I am glad you are healing and feeling better!! 

[angela515]

Hopefully yours will fall back down like mine did, out of nowhere, for no reason ... goodluck 

[goofynina]

Hopefully it is all just normal and everything will check out fine soon.  In the meantime, try not to worry and enjoy life my friend 

[waitlisted]

Yes, the doctor was concerned about me being dry with the huge amount of urine I have been producing last days, I have also lost 4 kg of weight during last 3 days (I am now back in my pre-trasplant weight).

So was told to have lot of liquids today and liquids not meaning water, but soups, so that I get salt as well.

I still hope that this will fix the direction of creatinine, but as I was told on last day in the hospital that if the creatinine keeps on 1.7 level they probably would like to do the biopsy. They don't do protocol biopsies in my center, but they said they have a low trigger level for doing one. So based on all this I am mentantally prepared that they will want to do it, but we'll see it tomorrow.

The Prograf level has been OK, since after the dosage reduction on second day. Yesterday's level was around 6 and they would like to keep it around 10 at this time. On the first day it was 22.

[okarol]

Something else I was thinking of -- I recently met Lori Hartwell at her home when she was donating some items for our Las Vegas dinner - and she told me something that I found fascinating. When she got her 3rd transplant her creatinine never went below 2.0. The doctors told her that it most likely would fail and she should be prepared. The highest her creatinine has ever gotten is 2.2 - and she has now had that kidney 17 years!!

Jenna's team said she had to have 2 liters of water per day - ON TOP OF all the liquids from soup, milk and juice. It really helps the kidney to flush out and stay healthy.

[angela515]

Yeah... I have 4, 20 oz water bottles in my fridge, and I know I got my fluid for the day when they are all gone. So that way, I never forget how much I need to drink before going to bed for the night. 

[waitlisted]

Better news... the creatinine was down a bit to 1.9. They are suspecting that I am on the dry side as in addition to my old still working kidneys I have now the new one as well and together they are working on "overdrive" and I am producing more urine than I get liquids in during the day. So I need to pay special attention to the hydration, but not inly water and hopefully the body gets stabilized soon.

I also need to start keeping log about the amount I drink daily and compare it to the output, so we can see they stay in balance.

[charee]

thats great news

[Wattle]

   Great news. Now fill your glass again!            

[Chris]

Keep it up, here   

[MyssAnne]

good for you!!! I'm so glad your kidney is working so well!!! 

[waitlisted]

Now it looks like I am on my way to biopsy. The creatinine keeps trending slowly upward, today's figure was 2.1. (1.7 -> 1.8 -> 2.0 -> 1.9 -> 2.1)

Yesterday I drank over 5000ml, so I was well hydrated and that cannot be the reason. They also did sonogram today, which was showing that everything is OK. Now I have biopsy scheduled for Wed and only if the creatinine would suddenly drop (without any reason) tomorrow it would be cancelled.

How does the biopsy procedure go and treatment of possible rejection?

Another issue I have is the pain in my left wrist from the IV, I have a bad throbbing pain which even disturbs my sleeping and does not really go away with pain meds either. The took vascular sonogram for that today, but that looked fine as well, so they concluded it being from IV. They told it might take couple of weeks to go away. Has anyone else had something similar?

The wrist pain is actually my biggest and only real pain I have, otherwise I feel very good.

[goofynina]

I hope everything goes well with the biopsy waitlisted, maybe they hit a nerve in your wrist, it must be pretty bad if pain killers dont help,  I hope your feeling better soon, keep us posted please 

[Amanda From OZ]

Good Luck. I hope all goes well. 

Amanda
xxoo

[Wattle]

   Goodluck with the biopsy. I hope it all turns out o.k and it is not rejection.

I agree with Goofynina, is sounds like the IV hit a nerve. It usually takes a few weeks for the nerve to heal. Boy does that hurt!!

[Chris]

How does the biopsy procedure go and treatment of possible rejection?

The biopsy is a needle that is inserted into the donated kidney to retrieve some tissue samples, it may require a couple tries to get enough of a sample. There is a loud click of a noise when the plunger is pushed to inject the needle. It can be unnerving to hear that noise. As far as treating rejection, there are a couple of different types of IV medication that can be given to try to curb rejection. I think I read somewhere that each type of those meds is for what stage of rejection you are in, but I could be wrong. They may also change your immunosuppressant regiment and amount. However, I hope you are not going into rejection
Take Care and Get Well Soon

[kellyt]

When I had my kidney biopsy I thought the "clicking sound" sounded like a hole puncher.  Man, I thought he was taking chunks out of my poor little kidney!   

[paddbear0000]

Good luck! 

[waitlisted]

Biopsy was done yesterday and today the creatinine was down to 1.7  , but the biopsy showed mild 1A rejection  , so now I get 5 days course of 350mg Solu-Medrol per day and that should hopefully take care of the rejection.

I was warned about bad side effects during next days, so let's see what happens.

I feel like working, not being on sick leave, as I have been in clinic or hospital now every day during this week, I wake up in early in the morning and leave around same time I would leave to work, I just have twice the distance to drive compared to my office. Now with this rejection treatment I will be going there all 7 days during this week...