Transplant Appointments Today (7/23/08)

I had my monthly appointments with the Transplant Surgeon and the Transplant Nephrologist today. They both said I look GREAT, and there are no major issues.

My labs are still stable and the new kidney is working well. In addition to the regular labs, I also had an Immune Cell Function test done as well as a level to see if I have CMV from the donor kidney, but those won’t be back today. The immune cell function test is a guideline to make sure both that I’m taking my immunosuppressives and that the doses I’m getting are doing what they are supposed to. The CMV “titer” is to determine if the kidney I received that was CMV + has caused me to get CMV. They lowered the Valcyte dose (due to my white blood cell count dropping); this med is used to prevent me from getting CMV, so it will be interesting to see the result.

If you look at my labs, you’ll see that my hemoglobin is stable, but low. The nurse said that they would expect my hemoglobin to be at least 10 by now. However, the Nephrologist decided to put me back on Procrit for a while, to “bump up” my hemoglobin. He wasn’t at all concerned; in fact, he said that since I have Beta Thalassemia, my hemoglobin might take a little bit longer to increase back towards normal.

Other than that, I have labs in 2 weeks, and a return appointment in 3 weeks (it should have been a month, but they didn’t have any appointments on that day).  At the next appointment, I’ll have my 3 month follow up labs to check for Hepatitis B and C, and HIV, since my donor died of a drug overdose. I don’t anticipate any problems. In September, I’ll also be rechecked for BK virus.

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