Today I thought about going over the fun side effects of the transplant and the meds I'm on. It's something I haven't really spoken about since transplant and I thought it would be good to get people to understand the interesting effects the pills can take on a persons body.
After Transplant I was on a drug called Cyclosporine, this is the first Anti rejection drug everyone goes on. It's the staple because I believe it's the strongest and works the best. It's not always the best though for people.
When I was switched to Oral Cyclo, things got interesting. Now, before I go on, let me explain what the doctors want a normal persons drug levels to be at. A normal person should be around 300-450 if I remember correctly for Cyclo. That's normal.
Me on the other hand, I'm not normal and so that never worked for my body. My drug levels would be 66 one day and 600 the next. Not one day was even close to the same as another while I was on the drug and because of that, the side effects from it hit me like a ton of bricks. Not as bad as some people I know but still pretty bad. I got extremely emotional and would freak out over every little thing and say the most hurtful things I possibly could. I don't know why I would say shit that would hurt people because I'm not like that. I don't get emotional unless I'm pushed to an extreme edge.
But because my drug levels finally became what the doctors found "Acceptable" they sent me home on it.
So, if you remember right, I was also on T3s at this time and after a month of T3s, I got so constipated that I ended up in the hospital and wasn't allowed to eat any food but I still had to take my meds including Cyclo, which is a fucking strong ass drug that MUST be taken with food. So because of that, my levels ended up going sky high. They never told me my exact levels but I know my body well enough to know that they were extremely high up there.
That's when I got the seizures, broke my back, ect. You've read the story. After those seizures they switched me to something called Prograf. It's the number 2 Anti rejection med they try when people have complications with Cyclo.
Proper levels on Prograf are between 5 and 10, I'm told. I'm usually around those numbers but some days, those I like to call "Bad days", I am like 15+. That's high for Prograf and I start to feel the effects hardcore.
I'm very moody, I'm very irritable, I get these dumbass thoughts in my head, and I start to shake like you wouldn't believe. On most of the bad days I just get extreme shakes. Nothing to bad. Does tend to be a bit of a pain in the ass but I try to deal.
On those special days where I do become the other things though. It gets bad. Not one person in my life seems to notice the change from logical smartass, to unlogical asshole. It bothers me actually, and instead of people being understanding, they just push me further. My family is really bad for it and they never just leave me alone. They push and push and push and make me say things I'd never say when I was clear of thought. It pisses me off so much.
And then I tend to make up those stupid scenarios in my mind. Like recently. Normally, my Birthdays are always about just having my friends over and having a blast, I never cared about presents but because my levels have been really high the last two weeks, I started having these thoughts I never had. I started getting pissed off that only a small handful of people got me anything. I've been doing the same birthday for 8 years. I never expected gifts from friends but this year I ended up freaking out on my friends and doing shit I never do.
And again, instead of people noticing this unexpected change and just ignoring it or trying to talk to me about it, they pushed me further and I then got worse and worse.
I feel more level headed now because I feel my levels are evening out but the damage has already been done.
Those are just the side effects I've had to deal with though. And there are much worse side effects too that can happen. I can get skin cancer, something that has always bothered me in my mind since the first day I read the book and it said what a high chance there was of getting it.
The other side effects that thankfully I've had few and far between are, Back pain(Kind of hard to tell this one though); constipation; diarrhea; dizziness; headache; joint pain; loss of appetite(Hard to notice this one); nausea(I get this quiet often and it's such a pain in the ass); stomach pain or upset; trouble sleeping(Another hard to notice one with my back pain); vomiting(And again, another one I get often); weakness.
So ya, there is some fun side effect history for you. I apologize for rambling, I tend to do it a lot but thanks for reading.
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