NINE MONTH CHECKUP COMPLETED
I finished my nine
month checkup this past week. I would
like to say all is well but unfortunately there was a complication. I heard the one word no transplant recipient
ever likes to hear. REJECTION! It’s a scary word with lots of negative
implications, but still, not something
to panic over.
I have to admit that I
cried for a bit when they first told me but not for long, just a
therapeutic little cry. I take comfort in the knowledge that the lung transplant doctors are right on
top of it and know how to treat it.
Really when you think
about it, the human body never ceases to amaze me. My body is doing EXACTLY what it is supposed
to be doing and that is finding anything foreign, in this case these strange
and unknown lungs I now have, thank you donor and donor family, and trying to protect my body from what it sees
as an invader.
The point of all the
anti-rejection drugs I take is to try to fool my immune system into believing
they ‘should’ be there, and that they are a normal part of my body. Apparently every once in a while my body
catches on to the trickery and says “HEY, ‘sup.
You guys aren’t supposed to be there and you’re going to have to go.” Then the
drugs I take have to work even harder to fool the immune system. Delicate balance but lucky for me, not impossible.
I was told I have a
stage 2 rejection and the treatment for this will be 3 boluses of solu-mederol
which is the IV form of prednisone, over the next 3 days. To keep the amount of the doses I will be
treated with in context, normally I was taking 12.5 mg. of prednisone a day but
for the next 3 days I will receive 1000 mg daily. After the 3 days I will go back on the oral
form of prednisone at 50 mg. reducing it weekly till I am back down to 12.5
which is my maintenance dose. I will be severely immunosuppressed for the next
little while because of these high doses of this steroid. Also the prednisone tends to make me feel kind of emotional and yucky.
In light of the fact
that this is my second bout of rejection, they are going to switch me over from Cyclosporine, which is what I have been taking up to now, to
a different drug called Prograf as my main anti-rejection drug.
There are still several other anti-rejection drugs that I am on and as
far as I know, they will stay the same.
I have every confidence
in the lung transplant team at Toronto General to treat this latest bout of
rejection but I will also have to do my part as well. I will have to adjust to the new drug regime
I will be on, I will have to have another bronchoscopy sooner then I normally
would have, probably in about 6 weeks, and I will have to be vigilant about not
being exposed to any illness or viruses as much as possible while my immunity
is so severely compromised.
Having explained all
this, the fact of the matter is that I feel great. I am keeping up with my exercise regime, and
in general enjoying life. Glitches like
this will happen from time to time but I’m not going to let it bring me
down. Life goes on and I’m just
rejoicing in living my life every day to the best of my ability.
Till next update, take
care and thanks for taking the time to read my updates. J
