Week 12 and 13

Yes, I know I haven't written for a while.  But that isn't quite true.  My big news is that I have decided to write a book.  It is about health and I have started so stay tuned.  I will divulge more later but as most of my readers are people with health issues I would like to call on your help.  Not yet, but soon I will be graciously calling on you all to help.

It has also been school holidays so I have been busy with the kids but these are just excuses as I decided recently to dust off my Nintendo 64 and fired up Zelda: Ocarina of time, which is my favourite game ever (and probably the main reason for my lack of writing) but in the interests of professionalism I'm going with the first two excuses.

So, how am I doing?  Really well actually.  Everything seems to be on track.  My blood work was fine with the exception of my kidney function which was elevated.  The haematologist I am seeing here was concerned but seeing as I have a kidney problem too I also have a nephrologist who we consulted over this issue.

So what caused this elevation?  During my HSCT I had really low blood pressure so the doctors at North Western decided I should stop taking Captopril, a drug I take for kidney stone prevention.  I started taking the drug a couple of weeks ago and this is the reason for the elevated creatinine.  Apparently it does not damage the kidneys, just slows them up a little.

As my neurologist was not overly concerned, neither am I.  But one think that remains in the question of whether the treatment worked?  Stay tuned, I will blog about that later this week.  Until then, stay well:)

Weeks 10 and 11

I think it is safe to say that I am pretty much fully recovered from the effects of the transplant.  There is nothing that I was doing before transplant that I am not doing now, with the exception of swimming as I have been instructed to stay out of public swimming pools for a little while yet.  Although my blood work is looking pretty good I still have to be careful as my immune system will not yet be up to scratch.  The restrictions and prophylactic medications will last up to twelve months.

Saying that my blood work looked good as well is not quite accurate either.  While most of it looked good, my kidney function was just a little off.  Kidney function is measured by creatinine.  The maximum range should be 120 but mine is currently 125.  No immediate cause for concern but still needs to be further investigated.

My haematologist, Prof Prince, seems to think that it is because of the captopril I take for my kidney stones.  I stopped taking it during my stem cell transplant as my blood pressure was very low, but I started taking it again a couple of weeks ago on the advice of my nephrologist.  Prof Prince has suggested that I talk to my nephrologist about it.  I have already put the call in but I am yet to hear back.  I will keep you all posted.

Another interesting thing that has happened is to do with my finger nails.  I have noticed that I have a pail band across each nail on both hands and feet.  I can only assume that it is from the chemo and that my nail development during this time was altered.  It doesn't hurt, nor is it uncomfortable.  I just found it interesting.  And to Bob, Wendy and Cory my fellow transplant buddies.  I bet if you're reading this you just looked at your finger nails.  Scratch that, I bet everyone reading this did;)  Until next time, stay well:)