No news was good news regarding my post-transplant health throughout September. My creatinine went down to 1.4-1.5, which is great. I didn’t write about it. I only write about bad news. There’s not much therapeutic value to writing about good news. 🙂
Today, the bad news. My white blood cell count has suddenly gotten quite low. A week ago, I was taken off immunosuppressant CellCept in favor of the similar medication Myfortic. Now, I’m off both and have started the dreaded prednisone. Pred has been one of my biggest fears since getting the transplant. Think bloated Jerry Lewis. I learned today that that awful side effect is known as “moon face”. I don’t want moon face. I don’t want to gain 50 pounds. Now, I’m on a fairly low dose, and I’m hoping my leukocyte count quickly goes up and then I won’t be on the prednisone too long.
And my leukocyte count will, I hope, go up quickly since I’m getting a couple of shots of Neupogen. At first, my nephrologists wanted me to go down to Charlotte right away to get these shots. Instead, I gave myself a shot tonight and will do it again tomorrow. I can actually credit Zellouisa for helping me do this so easily. I’ve been giving her insulin shots for awhile now, and she takes them so easily. I also consulted a YouTube video on how to inject yourself with insulin.
bullcitydave 
oh no! good luck. i’m not a fan of prednisone either, except in one way: the first time i took it for my MS, i was 24 and still very flat in the chest. BAM! practically overnight i got boobs. also a larger waistline and butt. but i got to keep the boobs for the most part except when i was in DKA and down to 112 pounds.
so it’s good for something on my body anyway.
i definitely did not enjoy putting on 45 pounds in 30 days though. and it made me insanely “i-will-cut-you-if-you-get-between-me-and-the-fridge” hungry too.
1. I did not get a “moon face” although I have been on prednisone for over 14 years.
2. My “fat” is mostly polycystic liver and NOT just flab.
3. When my leucocytes got way low and the neutroblasts (another type of white cell) got down to zero, I got IV infusions of the white cell equivalent of epogen.
4. YOU’RE DOING GREAT!!!!!