Treating the BK virus

BK virus

It was decided that lowering my dose of prograf might not be enough to treat the virus.  An antiviral would be necessary to rid me of the virus completely.

Unfortunately, it must be administered by IV, so I am once more in the hospital.  The antiviral is cidofovir and although it's job is to cure my kidneys of this nasty infection, it is also toxic to my kidneys.  So I also have a second drug, probenecid that somehow protects my kidneys.

I'm having my second dose now and so far so good.  I had a headache and some nausea, but not as much as I had been worried about.  I'll be having future doses at an infusion center as an outpatient which will be more convenient.

My kidneys are being closely monitored as well.  Here are the results for the last three days:

Creatinine 1.65,  1.69,  1.77
BUN .           58,  47,  42

My blood sugars are remaining stable except for an insertion site mishap.  I'm giving up on the Mio insertion device.

No Save November

November has come and gone and most of my issues are resolved.  But I still have a few to go and they are complicated.

I had a colonoscopy, a blood transfusion during a long hospital stay, and finally a kidney biopsy at the end of the month.  The switch from Myfortic to Imuran has resolved my stomach and fever issues.  That helps a lot.  Of course the transfusion solved the anemia problem.  But, I'm still not there yet.  My kidney function tests are still abnormal.  And despite the elimination of the energy depleting problems that I just mentioned, I still tire very easily.  I've developed a strange headache that seems to be triggered by motion.

The kidney biopsy has yielded a surprising result.  It was done to determine if it was the Prograf that was causing the stress to my kidneys.  It turns out that I have a viral infection in my kidney of the BK virus.  Its common in kidney transplant patients.  The treatment is lowering the dose of immunsuppression.  My doctors will be discussing how to treat this later today.

my soap

My blood sugars have been running higher lately.  I'm up to about 20 units/day now.  I think that part is due to my lower level of exercise.  I just don't have much extra energy right now.  That seems to be getting better and now I'm wondering if the kidney infection might be a factor in that.

I did have a few nice things in November.  I had a good time learning to make soap with a friend and we have a few good batches to give out for Christmas.

And, I was made the Advocacy Team Chair(ATC) of the Northwest Ohio Chapter of the JDRF.  I haven't been able to do much so far because of all of the above, but I'm excited to do this.  I'm attending the walk awards ceremony this week and am hoping to meet some of the Toledo JDRF board and find out how I can fit in.

December is here now, and my goal is to get back to a normal live before the end of it.