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A place for me to post random stuff about me (Jason Turner) and my life. A Law library is where I work, and diabetes is what I have. A transplant patient is also how I can now describe myself. But I try not to be defined by any labels anymore.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Long time no nothng - but this time I have a good excuse
Well then. It has been a hectic week. About 1 week and 1 hour ago I had my Islet Cell Transplant at the University of Alberta Hospital.
Wow. I was amazed, shocked, and stunned when I got the call that afternoon at work. Worried, scared, and excited also slipped into there somehow as well! Quite the cauldron of emotions.
To sum up:
The operation itself went really well, I was awake for the whole thing, and watched on the monitor as they basically fed the new cells into my liver through a catheter. I have a tiny tiny wound on my right side - it basically looks like I got a really big needle. Anyway, at the end of that they wheeled me back up to 3G2, the transplant unit at the hospital to recover. My roommate's name was Ira, and he had just had a double lung transplant a few weeks earlier. And you thought I was bad off!
That night however, I started having some problems. Nausea problems. It turns out I had a violent reaction to one of the immunosuppressents - Sirolimus. Not fun at all. But I did learn it really is better to throw up something as opposed to nothing. Who would have thought that? The first 4 hours after the transplant they were testing my sugars every 15 minutes, then every 30 for the next few after that, until we got to every 2 hours. I was also having multiple tubes of blood drawn every couple of hours as well. My poor arm is a wee bit bruised to put it lightly.
I was in the hospital until last Friday - the 15th, and by then was feeling marginally better. Had my brother and sister come and see me a few times, and a few other friends - but I don't know about you, but entertaining in a hospital bed with 4 IV's in your arm is not my idea of fun!
So anyhow I was starting to feel more decent until the powerful anti-nausea drugs wore off. Then Saturday and Sunday I was mega sick again. So badly that I thought that I should just let the new cells die, and go back to how things were. But today after a bit of advice from one of the Islet cell nurses, I decided that it is better to dig in my heels and try my best. So that is where we are today. I don't wish my weekend on anyone though. Let us just leave it in the past. Nothing to be done about it now.
I am taking right now (down from a total of 3798129837214 pills a day a few days ago)
Tacrolimus - 4 pills in the AM, 4 in the PM, for immunosuppression
CellCept - 4 pills throughout the day for immunosuppression
Septra - 1/day for infection prevention
Baby Aspirin - 1/day to prevent clotting
Lovenox - 2 injections/day a blood thinner
Vitamin E - 2/day for fun
Niacinamide - 3/day for I do not remember what. I think it is a vitamin though.
Insulin - still a little bit, maybe about 10% of what I was taking previously.
I need to test my sugars 7 times a day, something which I will have to get used to again. Normally I am a 3-4/day type of guy.
The really good news is that the highest my sugars have been since this happened is 8.2. Mostly though in the 6-7.5 range. I have not been low, and I am pretty pumped about that!
This morning when I shaved and showered I realized that I had lost a ton of weight - not surprising when I ate next to nothing for the better part of a week. I weighed 68.5 kg right before the operation, and this morning I weighed in at a grand total of 61.5, and that wearing heavy clothes and full pockets! So 15 pounds in 7 days. Yikes. My appetite is starting to come back though, but not as fast as I would like it to. No pictures of me until I fill back out a bit though. I look like I have been through Stalingrad or something.
Anyways - enough for now, but I am going to try to use the blog as a running commentary on all the stuff that goes along with these wonderful things going on.
Wow. I was amazed, shocked, and stunned when I got the call that afternoon at work. Worried, scared, and excited also slipped into there somehow as well! Quite the cauldron of emotions.
To sum up:
The operation itself went really well, I was awake for the whole thing, and watched on the monitor as they basically fed the new cells into my liver through a catheter. I have a tiny tiny wound on my right side - it basically looks like I got a really big needle. Anyway, at the end of that they wheeled me back up to 3G2, the transplant unit at the hospital to recover. My roommate's name was Ira, and he had just had a double lung transplant a few weeks earlier. And you thought I was bad off!
That night however, I started having some problems. Nausea problems. It turns out I had a violent reaction to one of the immunosuppressents - Sirolimus. Not fun at all. But I did learn it really is better to throw up something as opposed to nothing. Who would have thought that? The first 4 hours after the transplant they were testing my sugars every 15 minutes, then every 30 for the next few after that, until we got to every 2 hours. I was also having multiple tubes of blood drawn every couple of hours as well. My poor arm is a wee bit bruised to put it lightly.
I was in the hospital until last Friday - the 15th, and by then was feeling marginally better. Had my brother and sister come and see me a few times, and a few other friends - but I don't know about you, but entertaining in a hospital bed with 4 IV's in your arm is not my idea of fun!
So anyhow I was starting to feel more decent until the powerful anti-nausea drugs wore off. Then Saturday and Sunday I was mega sick again. So badly that I thought that I should just let the new cells die, and go back to how things were. But today after a bit of advice from one of the Islet cell nurses, I decided that it is better to dig in my heels and try my best. So that is where we are today. I don't wish my weekend on anyone though. Let us just leave it in the past. Nothing to be done about it now.
I am taking right now (down from a total of 3798129837214 pills a day a few days ago)
Tacrolimus - 4 pills in the AM, 4 in the PM, for immunosuppression
CellCept - 4 pills throughout the day for immunosuppression
Septra - 1/day for infection prevention
Baby Aspirin - 1/day to prevent clotting
Lovenox - 2 injections/day a blood thinner
Vitamin E - 2/day for fun
Niacinamide - 3/day for I do not remember what. I think it is a vitamin though.
Insulin - still a little bit, maybe about 10% of what I was taking previously.
I need to test my sugars 7 times a day, something which I will have to get used to again. Normally I am a 3-4/day type of guy.
The really good news is that the highest my sugars have been since this happened is 8.2. Mostly though in the 6-7.5 range. I have not been low, and I am pretty pumped about that!
This morning when I shaved and showered I realized that I had lost a ton of weight - not surprising when I ate next to nothing for the better part of a week. I weighed 68.5 kg right before the operation, and this morning I weighed in at a grand total of 61.5, and that wearing heavy clothes and full pockets! So 15 pounds in 7 days. Yikes. My appetite is starting to come back though, but not as fast as I would like it to. No pictures of me until I fill back out a bit though. I look like I have been through Stalingrad or something.
Anyways - enough for now, but I am going to try to use the blog as a running commentary on all the stuff that goes along with these wonderful things going on.
