Day 27: Feeling like myself again...perhaps after years and years...but these Neoral headaches!!!

It's been over 20 years since my kidney function was this good. It's hard to say what kind of daily impact that has on a body, on the day to day physical condition. I do know that even in these very early stages (the surgery was 4 weeks ago today), my energy level is much better than I can remember. I am so used to be in a half-state of tiredness. If I'm tired these days, it's assuredly due to the vast number of drug side-effects:

I have these incredibly bad 24-hour-a-day headaches that escalate into excruciating migraines by night because of the Neoral (one of the immunosuppressants). These evil headaches begin as soon as I wake - at the base of my neck, only on my left side, and by about 8 or 9pm have begun to creep slowly up the entire left side of my head, travelling down to end at my left eye. By 11pm, the pain is so bad that I'm in agony. I have tried Paracetemol and Tylenol (the same products) to no avail. I mentioned the headaches to my doctor yesterday; he wasn't surprised, but simply said that I have 2 more weeks before he decreases the dosage by half. I'm currently on 500mg of Neoral per day, a pretty normal amount for my weight.

I can't wash my hands in anything but cold water these days, as hot water makes me feel as if I have had frostbite. It's another side-effect, called 'hyperesthesia', basically hyper-senstivity. So it's that ice-cold winter water from the tap that feels most normal to my hands.

I also have these charming nightly night-sweats due to the Prednisone (another immunosuppressant). Another side effect is the raised glucose that I wrote of before that makes insulin injections temporarily necessary (both the aforementioned Neoral and the Prednisone are the nasty little culprits). Thankfully, the dosage of the Prednisone will go down from 10mg per day to 5mg per day in 2 weeks.

It's enough to make anyone tired.

I just keep thinking this: whatever it takes to keep this kidney from being rejected is what I have to do for this short time. Besides, after waking up in that hospital and realising how much had happened during the surgery is enough to make a person deal with almost anything else. :)