04.012.2017 update

Today was biopsy number 14, possibly the last biopsy.  Tomorrow John will have his first blood draw for the new 'allomap' blood test for organ rejection.  If the numbers match the actual biopsy of today, the docs will switch John to the blood draw in the future.  A biopsy gets billed at roughly $20,000 each time and the blood test, we have been told, runs about $6,000.  Quite a difference and less discomfort.  However if a future blood test shows rejection, they will order a biopsy to cross check the rejection. 

Back to today's visit to the UWMC.  The blood draw (15 vials) was done at 7am and the biopsy at 8:30.  The biopsy doc said the pressures and flows all looked good.  The biopsy results will come in tomorrow or Friday.  After the biopsy there was the clinic visit with the cardiologist, Dr. Masri.  She was happy with all of the progress made so far.  She especially liked the report of either a four mile walk or an hour on the bike at the gym six days a week.  She reported that the angiogram of last week was perfect, no graft atherosclerosis.  That made our day as the only cure for it is another transplant and who wants that? Graft atherosclerosis only happens in transplanted hearts, and it seems that is often happens a short time after the transplant.  Our friend Autumn, who was transplanted 20 years ago, only has angiograms every five years.

Two more medications are going away this week.  Down to 19 pills a day.  Before the transplant it was 49 per day.  We are blessed with great insurance which covers most medications as well as procedures. Another medication is possibly going away in July after a bone scan for osteoporosis.  Now that the prednisone has been stopped, they will check bone density before stopping Fosamax.

Dr. Masri showed the results of the 'autopsy' of the original heart.  It had been sent to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.  We are not sure why we didn't see the results sooner but there was nothing found that the Medical Center did not expect.

Our visits are now going to be three months apart now, a nice extra month between visits.  It wasn't so long ago that we had biopsies weekly.  It's hard to believe that the transplant was a year ago.

After the clinic visit with Dr. Masri, John had an echocardiogram, an ultra sound of the heart.  The technicians aren't allowed to say anything, but the impression we left with was that all was normal.

To sum up, all recent tests have been positive and the doctor is very happy with our progress.  The echo results, the biopsy results and the allomap blood test results will filter in over the next few days.  We'll post again with an update early next week when we have those results to report.

April is Organ Donation Awareness month.  Please register as a donor.  Yesterday was our one year Heartiversary, what a year it has been!

John & Colleen