January 12, 2011

Post date: Jan 12, 2011 5:3:42 AM

Wow, it has been a while since I posted! I figured I should post something about what has been going on lately. I started having some GI issues around a week before Christmas and figured it was some bad rice I had eaten. After a week I tried calling MUSC and they told me that I should go to the ER if it was so bad couldn't leave the house but it wasn't that bad so I didn't go. I called MUSC again on Monday after Christmas because I started getting worried about getting dehydrated but my coordinator was out of town so I went to my local doctor. He did a blood test etc and everything looked fine. I finally got someone to call me back on Wednesday and they told me to stop using Cellcept for 24hrs and then go to a half dose. I was actually in Charleston that week which I kept telling them in case they wanted me to get labs there which I was hoping they would do but they didn't. My nausea left on New Years day but my intestines still weren't right. I had a lab for MUSC scheduled the Friday after New Years and so I called MUSC to make sure they looked at my labs the same day instead of waiting a couple days since I am not an acute patient anymore. They called that mid-day and told me that my creatinine was elevated to 2.4 and I was dehydrated and needed to drink more. They put me on Flagyl which is a very strong antibiotic in case something new had developed or if the tests hadn't caught something. They said they were going to call when they got the other results from the test that take a little longer. I just got a call yesterday (Tuesday) about my Prograf levels (which they should have had by Friday afternoon) which were very high and considered toxic. This could also be the cause of my GI issues and causes higher creatinine levels. They told me to stop taking Prograf until this Friday and start taking my Cellcept again. I wish that I could have been told this on Friday. Who knows how long I have been toxic and how much my new kidney could have been damaged by now! I will have another lab next Tuesday to check my Prograf again. Please pray that this will be straightened out and my kidney levels stay good.