Monday, January 16, 2012

Extreme Measures


 Or how I lost 4 kilo's in 4 day's 
 (don't try this at home)

gday gentle readers,
My internal set up
the big one is the transplant

Thankfully I've been able to ignore this blog of late; it means I've been healthy, as healthy as man of my age with a kidney transplant can expect to be. 

The drugs I take to keep the kidney from doing a dummy spit do so by scuttling my immune system, not totally mind, just enough; a delicate balancing act.

But it leaves me vulnerable to bugs that wouldn't bother an uncompromised immune system - Friday 6/1/12 I got one (or it got me) and I went down in a big way; it just couldn't wait the extra week for Friday the 13th. 

Everything was fine at the regular Thursday clinic the day before: creatinine level, tacrolimus level, blood pressure, etc ~ cholesterol was a little high but not short term critical.

Friday morning I lost breakfast (the big spit, technicolour yawn) unfortunately only 5 mins after taking my anti- rejection pills. I took another dose and 40 mins later another yawn then the diarrhoea started.  

This picture is provided as a courtesy, you don't need to see me vomiting and/or ... 

I phoned my renal contact and let her know I was having a good clean out - both ends. My thermometer had a flat battery, I couldn't say what my temperature was but by the time I got to emergency about midday it was over 38'C and I wasn't feeling so hot, vomiting every 50 mins and diarrhoea whenever I sat on the dunny; I didn't dare fart when I wasn't.

For the next two days I was on a fluid drip with pre-emptive antibiotics and anti-vomit meds eating nothing because it would only come straight back at me. The vomiting slowed on the third day but the diarrhoea persisted to the fourth. After four days of that I was four Kilos lighter. As an extreme  weight loss measure it worked but the experience was not a pleasant one - as I said

  don't try this at home. 

Curiously the doctors have no idea what I caught, the cultures that grew from blood and stool samples didn't give them a culprit, a vicious mystery bug you wish on your enemies. 

Until my next post
(may it be a long way off) 

ooroo RoB

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