Month 15, part B
I went for an echocardiogram and PFT (pulmonary function test) on Wednesday, and then to the clinic on Thursday. The echo was interesting – it’s pretty much a sonogram of the heart, and the PFT was not as bad as I feared.
At the clinic on Thursday, I feel like I got good news and not so good news together in that they haven't found anything wrong, and they seem completely stymied by what’s going on. The good news is that my heart, lungs, thyroid, liver, and kidneys all seem to be working fine, and my muscles apparently are not actually being destroyed or breaking down. It was a relief to find these things out because there was a part of me that worried that one of these actually was suffering damage. I know some other BMT survivors who do have damaged lungs for instance that will never fully recover.
I had one other test after my clinic appointment, and that was some kind of Doppler in my upper and lower extremities to make sure I didn’t have clots that were the source of the problem. The doctor considered it very unlikely that I would suddenly have clots in all my extremities at the same time (she would have been much more suspicious if the fluid retention was not so symmetrical), but since they have no idea what’s going on, they wanted to rule out one more thing. The tests confirmed that my vascular system is clot free. BTW, I asked the vascular technician what was Doppler about the test, explaining that I know what the Doppler effect is and wondered how it played a part. She told me that the tests showed blood flow in the veins especially after she squeezed in a way to see the blood reverse direction momentarily. In other words, I didn’t really get my question answered although I imagine that the Doppler effect is used to gauge blood flow somehow. Once again, to me it looked just like a sonogram.
Next is a 24-hour urine test from which it again sounded like they don’t expect to see much because the blood labs already tell them much of what they need to know about kidney function, etc. She also prescribed a low level of a diuretic to try to ease my discomfort and see what effect it has, as well as bumping my anti-rejection drug back up to 2 pills a day from one. The reasoning behind this is that the onset of the problems seemed to coincide with cutting back from 2 pills to one in October.
I'm sure we'll figure it out and I can continue a positive recovery, and in the meantime, I'm working at not being discouraged by a dip in the road.
Love,
Justin
At the clinic on Thursday, I feel like I got good news and not so good news together in that they haven't found anything wrong, and they seem completely stymied by what’s going on. The good news is that my heart, lungs, thyroid, liver, and kidneys all seem to be working fine, and my muscles apparently are not actually being destroyed or breaking down. It was a relief to find these things out because there was a part of me that worried that one of these actually was suffering damage. I know some other BMT survivors who do have damaged lungs for instance that will never fully recover.
I had one other test after my clinic appointment, and that was some kind of Doppler in my upper and lower extremities to make sure I didn’t have clots that were the source of the problem. The doctor considered it very unlikely that I would suddenly have clots in all my extremities at the same time (she would have been much more suspicious if the fluid retention was not so symmetrical), but since they have no idea what’s going on, they wanted to rule out one more thing. The tests confirmed that my vascular system is clot free. BTW, I asked the vascular technician what was Doppler about the test, explaining that I know what the Doppler effect is and wondered how it played a part. She told me that the tests showed blood flow in the veins especially after she squeezed in a way to see the blood reverse direction momentarily. In other words, I didn’t really get my question answered although I imagine that the Doppler effect is used to gauge blood flow somehow. Once again, to me it looked just like a sonogram.
Next is a 24-hour urine test from which it again sounded like they don’t expect to see much because the blood labs already tell them much of what they need to know about kidney function, etc. She also prescribed a low level of a diuretic to try to ease my discomfort and see what effect it has, as well as bumping my anti-rejection drug back up to 2 pills a day from one. The reasoning behind this is that the onset of the problems seemed to coincide with cutting back from 2 pills to one in October.
I'm sure we'll figure it out and I can continue a positive recovery, and in the meantime, I'm working at not being discouraged by a dip in the road.
Love,
Justin
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