Friday, February 1, 2019

Fourth Annual Post-Transplant Exam

On January 1st I celebrated the fourth anniversary of my lung transplant.  Four years of new life thanks to the wonderful gift from my donor family.

With each anniversary, comes my annual post-transplant exam. The annual exam is basically a very thorough physical. The test/exams for the day included labs (14 vials), a CT of the chest, ultrasounds of my heart and abdomen, a bone density test, chest x-ray, a 6 minute walk test, arterial blood gas, a couple pulmonary function tests, and a physical exam.

The lab results were routine.  My white blood cell count is a little high, 7.09x10(9)L. We prefer it to be a point or two lower and will adjust my meds a bit to get it down.  My Creatinine, an indicator of kidney function, is high but not higher than what has become normal for me. I average about 1.4 mg/dl creatinine which indicates how hard the meds are on my kidneys. Other than that my labs were all good.  Immune system properly suppressed, cholesterol and A1C are normal. and liver function is good.

My bone density exam showed the the meds continue to demineralize my bones.  I've lost between 17 - 19% of the bone mineral density in my hips since my transplant. I'll be seeing my Mineral Metabolism Doc next month.

Now we get to the part of the exam that shows the condition of my lungs and progression of my chronic rejection. The X-rays, CT of my chest, and full Pulmonary Function Tests offer a solid picture of where I stand at the moment. You have to look at all three together to get the full picture.

From my X-ray:
Lungs and pleura: Stable right upper lobe volume loss with underlying bronchiectasis noted. Mild right middle lobe volume loss seen. No acute consolidation.
From the CT:
IMPRESSION:
1. Complete right upper lobe collapse with mild bronchiectasis as before. Stable mild bronchiectasis and volume loss of the middle lobe. No endobronchial mass identified.
2. Air trapping on expiratory phase images is suggestive of small airway disease such as bronchiolitis obliterans.
3. Near complete resolution of previously noted groundglass opacities at the lung bases with few residual groundglass and reticular opacities at the left costophrenic recess.
And from my PFT's:
Forced expiratory flows are severely reduced with a moderate reduction in the forced vital capacity.
No bronchodilator response
Lung volumes reveal a normal total lung capacity with incomplete exhalation of the vital capacity and trapping of a large residual volume
Diffusion capacity is moderately reduced
Sever obstructive ventilatory defect with air trapping and impaired diffusion. COPE/Emphysema. Vascular disease, Bronchiolitis cannot be excluded
The most interesting part of these results relate to my collapsed lung. I have been having issues with the upper lobe of my right lung collapsing.  We've been able to get it reinflated a couple of times, but it appears that it is going to be collapsed more often than not.  What is new in these results is volume loss in my middle lobe.  That's not at all what I was expecting, and a bit disheartening.  I'm not quite as stable as I had hoped.

The air trapping noted in these findings is indicative of my chronic rejection. The air trapping combined with the >50% loss in lung volume from my highest results shows the progress of the rejection.

The good news about these results is the 'Near complete resolution of previously noted groundglass opacities..." This indicates that we have addressed the unidentified infection that was previously an issue.

So the end result of this exam is that we will be adjusting my meds a bit to drop the WBC, and I'll be using Acapella airway clearing device along with my incentive spirometer each day to potentially help with the collapsing lung.

Update: My goal after this visit is to stay out of the clinic and hospital until my next quarterly exam :)

Since every blog post needs an image, here is the box we sit in for our full pulmonary function tests.


Image found here

Update: I've increased my CellCept to 1500 mg twice/day and I'm a line item topic of discussion for the Team's weekly meeting next week. They are going to attempt to refer me to Extracorporeal Photopheresis again, but it is not likely it will be approved by Medicare, again.

2 comments:

  1. Forgive me for asking,but what's your age? I do not know how to email you but our family us just starting this journey and we have lots of questions. Thank u for sharing

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    1. Ask away :) I am 57. There is an email link on the sidebar, our you can use primaltransplant@yahoo.com

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