What's New?

Often when I sit down to write one of these entries I have something definite to write about. That was relatively easy when there was a lot going on and the treatment had a day to day element involved. Now the course of treatment has taken a new course. It is one of monitoring and maintaining and adjusting. That's what last week involved. The blood work showed my neutrophils were very low as was my white blood cell count. So they gave me a neupogen shot to increase the production of neutrophils which are necessary for infection fighting. Also my magnesium count was low. This has always been an issue since the SCT because of the tacrolimus I'm taking. I have been able to maintain a good level with magnesium oxide pills but that creates a diarrehea issue which in turn throws off the other medications, including the magnesium and the tacrolimus. So they gave me an IV of magnesium (easier to tolerate) and adjusted my tacrolimus dose as well. Monday I go in again for another blood test and probably adjust again. Each time medicines in my system get out of dosage there are side effects. Tacrolimus causes me to have shakes and when the counts get high it gets pretty bad. My signature last week could have been mistaken for a doctor's. Low magnesium leads to low electrolytes and other problems.  That's the way things are going now and it involves a lot more monitoring on my part since the time between Dr.'s visits is getting longer. It has been 4 months now since the SCT and the next big mile stone will  be 6 months. There be days my friends it's like watching grass grow during the year of the drought.