Drug transition update

I am slowly decreasing my dosage of Cellcept.  I am down to less than half of what I had been taking.  I am up to full strength now of the Rapamune.  I feel better already.  I still get tired sometimes after my walk, but not without a reason anymore.  I no longer wake up and already feel tired.  My stomach is getting better too.  I still have a way to go with that, and I still don't have much of an appetite, but I am trying really hard to push myself to eat.
My blood sugars continue to be good.

That was a few days ago.  I have decreased my Cellcept even more and am even better.  I have been testing my endurance lately, and can go a lot farther than a few weeks ago.  It's just wonderful.


The bad news is that now I have the downside of Rapamune, which is mouth sores.  They are not nearly as bad as the stomach and fatigue issues of Cellcept, but are still no fun.  I had a few of them when I was on Rapamune the first time, but not this many.   I have 3 bad ones right now.  As much as I hated to complain already, I asked Janet what I should do about them.  She suggested a medication called Debactoral and Dr. Bellin agreed.  I had a dentist appt this morning and he is going to get some samples in for me to try out.  In the meantime, he prescribed an oral lidocaine rinse, which helps some.

These are just some fun pictures.  The first is a day's worth of pills.

The second is the first flowers of the year.

The last one was taken at work.  One of my very creative coworkers decorated my pig for St. Patrick's Day.

Back to Rapamune

The decision has been made to switch me from Cellcept to Rapamune.  This is one of the immunosuppressive drugs that I was on before, right after the transplant.  I had very good luck with it before and should this time too.

I started taking the Rapamune yesterday morning.  I have felt pretty tired the last few days, but that could be partly due to the CMV.  My titer is back to normal now, but I remember from my first experience with it that the fatigue lasts for awhile.  I also remember being tired right after the transplant.  That could have been caused by any of the several drugs I was taking at that stage, but maybe the Rapamune was a part of it.  Time will tell.

The transition will start with my taking 5mg of Rapamune in the morning.  I will decrease the Cellcept after 4 days and then have my levels drawn to decide how to proceed.  The last transition from Raptiva/Rapamune to Cellcept/Prograf went smoothly, so I expect this will too.  It is almost a year ago now.

This is the newest member of the household.  Her name is Callie and she arrived with my daughter Becky.  She is almost housebroken now and has become the companion of our dog Lucky.  She has won us all over now and not entirely because of her extraordinary cuteness.  She and Lucky have been taking good care of me during this stage of the process.