Thursday, June 3, 2010

Too Tired to Blog

I will give RJ Tolstoy a break this evening and just give a quick update......we have spent 2 very long days at UCSF: yesterday for a routine heart biopsy which we expect will be as good as all previous ones, and today making our way all over the Clinic offices for a total of 5 different appointments. Being a transplant recipient (and partner) is really a full time job still.

After waiting nearly a week on results from last Friday's kidney biopsy, we were told today that the lab staff pronounced the results "equivocal". How's that for a non-answer? Basically they concluded that it's not the BK virus causing the rise in the creatinine numbers, and probably not rejection ("the cells are not typical of rejection"), so a different virus is being blamed. A new antibiotic was prescribed for a 2-week course to see if it does the trick. And we'll give that a try, as soon as the doctor is able to negotiate with our insurance company for a co-pay that's considerably less than the $2,000 we were quoted today.

For those who enjoy his wonderfully descriptive prose, RJ will be able to tell more about our 2-day odyssey in another post, from the cath lab Wednesday, to 4 different floors in the clinic building today. In the meantime, I hope this short note will enable the worriers to sleep well tonight. All is well.
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RJ/Bob/Irv is a 61-year-old beloved husband, father, uncle, brother, motor racing fanatic, and Livermore resident who received a heart and kidney transplant in February of 2010. Bob's recent years have been defined by his health, which forced him into early retirement. Unfortunately, many of his days were spent in a dialysis center or at various medical appointments, primarily due to his living with diabetes for over 40 years. Numerous were panic visits to various Emergency Rooms all over California for treatment of chest pain. But now no more dialysis and no more late-night dashes to UCSF! The main focus of Bob's family, friends, and doctors has been a prompt transplant, so that he can get back to traveling with his Sweetie, driving fast cars, enjoying great music and laughing with his friends. This blog will function as a way to communicate with all interested parties and to keep everyone informed. And hopefully it can serve a great purpose also, in making people more aware of the importance of organ donation and how each life saved has a positive effect on dozens of related friends and relatives.