Islet Cell Transplant at 5 1/2 Years

Its now been 5 1/2 years since I had my islet cell transplant.  Here are the lab results from this point in time.  They are very similar to those of my 5 year checkup.

Chemistry tests.  

Cholesterol is 180.   HDL is 83.   LDL is 83.

These are all good and almost identical to 6 months ago.

Kidney function tests.

Creatinine is 1.7  Normal is 0.5-1.3   This is up from my previous 1.6

Glomerular Filtration Rate is 31    Normal is greater than 60.   This is slightly down from 34 six months ago. 

This puts me into the bottom of Stage 3 Kidney disease.  Its based on the creatinine level which is elevated.

CBC.

WBC is 4.1 and absolute neutrophils is 2.8

Hemoglobin is 13.1   normal is 12-16

I'm holding steady here.

Islet function tests

A1c is 7.1  This is exactly what it was 6 months ago.

Before Breakfast:   BG is 113.   C-peptide is less than 1

After Boost:            BG is 361  C-peptide is 0.2

I had some C-peptide testing done in September too.

Before Breakfast:    BG is 99    C-peptide is less than 1

After Boost:            BG is ?      C-peptide is 0.1

Just about the same.

My tacrolimus level was 2.7   normal is 5-10

It was 4.0 in September.  3.2 in October.

4.3 in November.  6.0 in December. 

Its so surprising to see it stay so high at my present low dose of 1.5mg/day.

I'm still having my BK Virus titers done monthly.  I can't seem to get rid of them, but they seem to be remaining at lower levels.

In November, the urine was 4.3 and the serum was less than 2

In December, the urine was equivocally present and the serum was less than 2

In January, the urine was 4.0 and the serum was less than 2

I'm taking about18 units of insulin/day and 30mcg of Symlin with each meal.  

Good times in California

I have had a few Staph infections and one more UTI (E. coli).  But other than that, I've been healthy.

Snowy days at home