Happy Plasma Exchange Day

Hi Everyone. Thanks for all the positive feedback on the Blog. I haven't really had a chance to write back to all of you who have so thoughtfully taken the time to email me. Jason has the Laptop, so it is hard to sit long enough to write back to everyone. I am in the process!

Today I went down to St. Elizabeth's for a plasma-exchange. They decided after I arrived that we could do a little larger exchange, which is a great thing, as far as I am concerned. The more of these evil little anti-bodies they get out, the better. I had become pretty weak, so I was really happy to get hooked up. I really hate getting short of breath. It pretty much sucks. LOL Thankfully we have plasma-exchange available- and we know it will work.

My wonderful nurse down in Boston reminded me how bad I was last November, so it is pretty easy to keep things in perspective right now. I am home and resting comfortably with a lovely glass of merlot at the moment, rather than being in ICU. Last time I had to have 7 exchanges (I only remembered 6) and this time I had one and planned another for Saturday. I am really keeping my fingers crossed that this will keep the MG antibodies in check for a few weeks. If I need to go down once a week, though, until the Cyclosporin kicks in, that is what I will do!

Another bit of good news comes from my GP today. She said that my most recent bloodwork shows that the blood pressure issue is most likely related to the steroids, not the cyclosporin. We have started me on a diuretic to help alleviate the problem. This info is coming from the fact that my kidneys seem to be functioning really well, despite the cyclosporin.

So I stopped at the infamous CVS- people must be starting to talk about me and my pharmacist!- and picked up yet another script. Ahhh well, at least this one will help with the huge head issue. By the way, my parents went out last night and got another blood pressure cuff- if anyone is interested Brookstone has some nice ones that are really accurate. So hopefully I will be up all night long peeing. And maybe tomorrow when I wake up I will recognize the face I see in the mirror. I certainly recognize the heart and the fight I have come back to finding in the last week!