I Hate Dialysis Message Board
Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: General Discussion => Topic started by: Stoday on July 02, 2010, 10:07:45 AM
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I've developed an allergy to Sensipar. I first started taking it in April, but the renal section forgot to schedule any blood tests for a month. I had a bit of a rough time with it too.
After a month my calcium had dropped and I spent May getting my calcium levels back again. I restarted Sensipar in June with weekly blood tests. I really wanted the drug to work because it held the prospect of avoiding a parathyroidectomy. So I kept on taking it even though it was causing problems. Eventually I couldn't take it any more. Or anything else for that matter, because anything other than water made me sick. Just half a cup of tea in the morning and I threw it up. In addition it affected my breathing and I got bad OSD ('orrible squirty diarrhea :laugh:).
My neph said I'd developed an allergy. He'd never had a patient that had an allergy to Cinacalcet (that's what Sensipar's called in the UK). He's doubled up my alphacalcidol script but it looks like I'll eventually lose my parathyroids. That operation fills me with horror. Apart from getting my neck chopped about, there's a question about anesthesia. When I had my fistula op they refused me a general because of my poor health so I had to have a local. I don't know if that's an option for a parathyroidectomy. Or will it be a general with all the additional risk? I'd like to hear of anyone's experience.
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They told me I could not be allergic to Zemplar and Calcijex, but I am. They cause itching for me.
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I did the same thing on sensipar. I did fine for a while, then started vomiting all the time. It stopped working even when it stayed down anyhow - my PTH was something like 10 times normal by the time I had surgery. I had given up taking it the last couple of weeks before surgery, so the numbers may not have been quite that bad if I'd tried to keep taking it, but I figured I'd be better off not spending the time before surgery constantly ill. My doc agreed.
I don't know if a local is a possibility, though. The overactive glands are not always located where the medical texts say they should be. If they have to slice you open more than the standard couple of inch slice at the neck to find everything, a local is not going to cut it. (When they remove the overactive gland, you PTH drops to normal in minutes. They test for it during surgery, while you are still on the table. If it doesn't drop right away, they go back to look for another gland that's also swollen and overactive.)
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I had problems with Sensipar in the beginning, and went off of it for a few months. I was constantly vomiting on it. I started it back up again, though, and was able to tolerate it. I started with a 30 mg dose and was able to slowly work up to 60 mg without any vomiting.