Tuesday I was supposed to meet with Dr. Oran. However, since she is pregnant, she didn't want to see me because of the shingles. Shingles is contagious but the only at-risk populations are people who haven't had chicken pox, immunocompromised people, and pregnant women. So I met with another doctor who examined me and discussed everything with me, then went and discussed her findings with Dr. Oran, then came back with what Dr. Oran had to say - sort of like the game "telephone".
The three of us decided that it is still too early to tell if my shingles treatment is effective. More time is needed to see if new lesions are developing. Until then, I'll continue taking my antivirals and pain meds. We also decided that my GVHD has stabilized since discontinuing the prednisone pulses, which means we're going to try slowly reducing the prednisone I'm taking daily from 30mg to 20mg. My creatinine has slowly been climbing as well (it's been hovering around 1.5-1.6), so I'm also reducing the amount of Lasix I'm taking. That should help reduce the stress on my kidneys, as long as the edema stays under control (it's been a lot better recently).
All my tests from my six month anniversary came back normal/clear. There is no signs of leukemia anywhere and the marrow is 100% donor. Furthermore, all three cell precursors are present and producing cells (white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets). The other genetic tests that were done all came back with favorable results. Finally, my lung x-ray was clear (no pneumonia visible).
My next appointment is tomorrow to check on the shingles. If there is no improvement or I'm still producing new skin lesions I will need to take different antivirals. I'm told, however, that these would need to be done IV which means I'd have to be hospitalized. Hopefully it won't come tot that.
09 September 2010
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