There is a delicate balance involved with a kidney transplant, as proven by my recent “medical adventure”.
As my readers know from last month’s post, I recently had foot surgery that involved removing part of the outside bone of my left foot due to infection (along with major reconstruction of my foot). Having been on antibiotics for close to a month, I developed a yeast superinfection in the deep tissue of my foot. The Orthopedic Physician’s Assistant consulted with an Infectious Disease physician, and the recommendation was to place me on Fluconazole 200 mg daily for a month. It turns out that there is a major interaction between that drug and Tacrolimus (Prograf), and I was hospitalized for Acute Renal Failure from Prograf toxicity. When the 2 drugs are used together, a dose adjustment may need to be made on the Prograf. (after my transplant, I was on Fluconazole 150 mg once weekly for 4 doses; in this case, a dose adjustment was not necessary)
Everything is returning to normal: my last creatinine was 1.3 (my baseline is 1.1-1.2), my Prograf level is 5.2 on 2 mg/2 mg (previous dose 3 mg/2 mg), and the BK virus is once again out of my bloodstream and a level of 11,000 copies in my urine (it had been 912,000 copies in my urine and 1,000 copies in my blood last month when I was hospitalized). The only physical residual effect that may be related to the Prograf toxicity is that I’m still having burning and numbness in my hands (although that could also be from my peripheral neuropathy, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease).
There are some lessons to be learned from what happened to me.
First, TRUST NO ONE. I had emailed my transplant coordinator the day I was placed on Fluconazole, and she replied back that she would tell the surgeon. She did not do that. The PA who had prescribed the Fluconazole apparently failed to heed the interaction warning, and despite me asking, also had not touched base with the transplant surgeon before prescribing it.
Second, BE VIGILANT WITH ALL OF YOUR CARE. I failed to look up Fluconazole before taking it. And while it’s up to the healthcare professionals involved in our care to ensure that these things don’t happen, mistakes and oversights can and do occur.
Third, USE ONE PHARMACY. I made the mistake of having the Fluconazole filled at a pharmacy closer to my home. This pharmacy had no record of me being on Prograf, and thus had no reason to warn the doctor of the interaction. Had I driven another 15 minutes to my regular pharmacy, the interaction may have been caught.
And while there have been many advancements in the field of kidney transplants, there is, and always will be, the possibility of error.
We all must take ownership of what is done to maintain our transplant if we want to keep our kidney healthy and functional.
There is a delicate balance involved with a kidney transplant, as proven by my recent “medical adventure”.
As my readers know from last month’s post, I recently had foot surgery that involved removing part of the outside bone of my left foot due to infection (along with major reconstruction of my foot). Having been on antibiotics for close to a month, I developed a yeast superinfection in the deep tissue of my foot. The Orthopedic Physician’s Assistant consulted with an Infectious Disease physician, and the recommendation was to place me on Fluconazole 200 mg daily for a month. It turns out that there is a major interaction between that drug and Tacrolimus (Prograf), and I was hospitalized for Acute Renal Failure from Prograf toxicity. When the 2 drugs are used together, a dose adjustment may need to be made on the Prograf. (after my transplant, I was on Fluconazole 150 mg once weekly for 4 doses; in this case, a dose adjustment was not necessary)
Everything is returning to normal: my last creatinine was 1.3 (my baseline is 1.1-1.2), my Prograf level is 5.2 on 2 mg/2 mg (previous dose 3 mg/2 mg), and the BK virus is once again out of my bloodstream and a level of 11,000 copies in my urine (it had been 912,000 copies in my urine and 1,000 copies in my blood last month when I was hospitalized). The only physical residual effect that may be related to the Prograf toxicity is that I’m still having burning and numbness in my hands (although that could also be from my peripheral neuropathy, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease).
There are some lessons to be learned from what happened to me.
First, TRUST NO ONE. I had emailed my transplant coordinator the day I was placed on Fluconazole, and she replied back that she would tell the surgeon. She did not do that. The PA who had prescribed the Fluconazole apparently failed to heed the interaction warning, and despite me asking, also had not touched base with the transplant surgeon before prescribing it.
Second, BE VIGILANT WITH ALL OF YOUR CARE. I failed to look up Fluconazole before taking it. And while it’s up to the healthcare professionals involved in our care to ensure that these things don’t happen, mistakes and oversights can and do occur.
Third, USE ONE PHARMACY. I made the mistake of having the Fluconazole filled at a pharmacy closer to my home. This pharmacy had no record of me being on Prograf, and thus had no reason to warn the doctor of the interaction. Had I driven another 15 minutes to my regular pharmacy, the interaction may have been caught.
And while there have been many advancements in the field of kidney transplants, there is, and always will be, the possibility of error.
We all must take ownership of what is done to maintain our transplant if we want to keep our kidney healthy and functional.