News from Boston

Lauren had her biopsy, a couple of weeks a go.  As I said, there was no rejection.  They wanted Lauren to have her blood work done again in  week to recheck her taccrolimus levels.  They were a little low, so they upped her dosage for a week and then have it rechecked.

Tacrolimus
Drug
Tacrolimus is an immunosuppressive drug used mainly after allogeneic organ transplant to reduce the activity of the patient’s immune system and to lower the risk of organ rejection

Friday Lauren’s Dr. from Boston called and said, they have to make another adjustment.  So now they lower it a bit, and also lowered her potassium by one capsule 750mg.  Lauren has been taking 5 a day so now 4 a day.  Tacrolimus can interact with your kidneys.  So Lauren’s kidney levels were elevated. They also adjusted her torsemide from 100 mgs. twice a day to 50 mgs twice a day

Torsemide                                                                                      

Torsemide belongs to the group of medicines called loop diuretics. Torsemide is given to help reduce the amount of water in the body in certain conditions, such as congestive heart failure, severe liver disease (cirrhosis), or kidney disease. It works by acting on the kidneys to increase the flow of urine.

These are all the meds Lauren has to take every day.  I sometimes feel like  small pharmacy here.

Since the transplant, I have learned the lesson that medicine is a science.   It takes a lot of adjusting.  Factors can be the time she takes them, food Lauren eats, exercise and most important fluids she drinks.

Lauren takes a total of 26 pills through the day.  We fill her pill boxes once a week so everything is organized and ready for the day.

We have a new phrase around here ‘It’s that time of the month”, meaning refill time.

Lynne