Thursday ~ 18 February: Day 215

Time for another health update. The last few weeks haven't been as good as I would have liked them. As a matter of fact, I've spent most of the time in bed. My liver functions have remained high and last week I had to have a liver biopsy and spend the night in the hospital up at Vanderbilt. It's taking me a while to get over that.

The tests show I do have Graft vs Host Disease of the liver, elevated triglycerides and elevated iron. We've known about the elevated iron since before the transplant. That is a result of 100 red blood transfusions. My cholesterol numbers have always been very good, so they are thinking the triglyceride problem is a side effect of some of the anti-rejection meds. It's a cycle. Because of the GvHD, they have increased one of the anti-rejection meds: Gengraf. Whenever they do that I'm normally sick for about a week or so while my body readjusts. By sick, I mean dizzy and nauseous. Hard to get up and do anything. Plus increasing the dose is likely to also raise my triglyceride level more.

My next appointment at Vandy is on the 23rd. I'll have tests to check liver functions, cyclopsporin levels, ferritin levels and cholesterol levels. Depending on what the numbers are will decide the next course of treatment. For the iron they are debating either bleeding me or putting me back on ExJade. The hope is that by increasing my Gengraf dose, the cyclopsorin levels will go up and the liver functions will come back down to normal levels. That still leaves the triglycerides to be dealt with and they didn't say what they might want to do about that. I will find out on Tuesday. In the meanwhile I will be glad we have gotten rid of the snow and are in for some warmer weather.

namasté,