May 28, 2012 – Recent Mayo Trip - 1 Year Checkup

Wow, it has been a little over 1 year (13 1/2 months) since her tranplant, time flies... We just got back from Mayo for the one year checkup, bottom line is everything is ok and we go back in three months.

The Details.

First we have stayed away from chinese food.
They think they found out what is causing her ‘intestinal issues’.  She had a breathing test which showed that she has bacterial overgrowth in her small intestines which is causing the issue.  That is the current theory at least.  The solution is ten days of antibiotics and if the issue is resolved then she can stop the antibiotic otherwise keep taking them until all is good and then stop.  She is to do this for up to twenty one days, time will tell if this is the real issue.

As far as the new heart is considered things are good.  All the tests had good results, they took a number of biopsy samples and two were scar tissue from previous biopsies (what are the odds), one was a 1R rejection (more on this later) and the last was tested for amyloid and none was found!!  She had a previous rejection of 1R (lowest level) and they really don’t care much about one 1R rejection, if all of them were 1R or if the previous biopsy had them then they might do something but 1R is so low that one instance of it is just ignored.  It might have been from the 1R that she had about 1 year ago and it was just in one spot.  The one from a year ago was also ignored and no others have showed up.

Her liver numbers were slightly elevated and because of that they decided to do a PET scan to check for a return of the lymphoma.  Her scan was clear so no lymphoma.  Her white blood count was low but the nuetraphil count are high enough to protect her (nuetraphils are the things that fights infection).  It might just be a resetting of her blood counts from the chemo, we are taking a wait and see approach and will have blood work at home just to keep track of it.

Her amyloid numbers are stable, one of them that bounces around a bit came back down so happy happy for that.  They are also looking to reduce her steroid meds and we will do that a few weeks before our return and then do a biopsy when we go back up.

Thanks for stopping by.