Thursday, April 11, 2013

BK virus update

My battle with the BK virus continues, but I seem to be winning.  Fortunately for me, it there are no symptoms to this disease state.  It feel more like a battle of numbers.  And thats a good thing.  I know its more serious than that.  It can't be a good thing at all to have a virus in my kidneys and that accounts for the necessity of risking my islets by the lowering of my immunosuppression.

Here are the numbers:

Date            Serum BK                                     Urine BK                                       Creatinine
3/1/13          Undetectable                                  4.2                                                1.9

3/8/13         Low  (less than 390 log units)         3.3                                                 1.9

3/15/13       Undetectable                              Detectable, but not quantifiable        1.7

3/27/13                                                              3.3                                                1.8


This is definitely a step in the right direction.  It was worrisome enough however to cause Dr. Bellin to reduce my Prograf even more.  As of 4/2, I am only taking 1mg at breakfast and 0.5mg at dinner of Prograf.  My Prograf level at 2.5 mg/day tested at 6ng/ml.  Normal is 5-10, so I seem to be very sensitive to it now.  I don't understand what could be causing that to happen, but glad for it.
Easter pig cookies

My BGs are hanging in there.  I'm still at 9 units of insulin/day.  The weather is finally becoming Springlike and I'm hoping to be getting some more walks in.  I still feel the need to avoid the cold if possible.


My last CBC showed that my hemoglobin is up to 12.5.  No more worries about that now.  My last blood pressure was good to a 122/80.


I suffered another urinary track infection last month.  I was prescribed Ampicillin for that.  I'm not sure if there is any effects from that or not.  I'm having my BK tests done every other week now.

3 comments:

Michelle said...

Hi Kathy,

I live on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. After about 8 months I finally have an appt. with the transplant team in Edmonton for May. This is just the initial meeting with them. I have done most of the tests here in BC. I'm soooo excited and nervous. Was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when I was 21.
My first daughter was stillborn at 32 weeks because I went into diabetic ketoacidosis while in hospital with premature labour. I do suffer from alot of hypos.
I appreciate your posts and honesty about your experience's with the Islet cell transplant.

Michelle

Kathy said...

Michelle,
Thanks for the kind words. Despite my recent setbacks, I still feel extremely lucky to have had this opportunity. I hope that you can have a similar experience soon. Best wishes to you,

Kathy

Karen said...

Thanks for keeping us updated - I'm continuing to send good thoughts to you. Oh, and those Easter pig cookies are adorable!