Friday Feb 11th BMT Clinic visit

This appt was set up because last week my hemoglobin was so low that I was probably going to need a blood transfusion today. Well my hemoglobin bounced back all on its own 7.0 to 7.6 so no blood needed and also the appt I made for an EPO shot next Tuesday could be canceled. Also a surprise was my creatinine which got better 2.68 to 2.44, a small step maybe but it is still going down which is great. So I don't have to go back for a couple of weeks.
I found out that artificial EPO has some 'baggage' attached to it. If for instance my kidney function doesn't get any better and the naturally occurring hormone EPO  doesn't 'naturally occur' and I have to get EPO shots on a regular basis then statistically people using EPO are found to come out of remission earlier which is a bummer! So basically if my kidneys are buggered and they don't produce EPO which in turn means it doesn't encourage my bone marrow to produce RBC's which means my hemoglobin level is low which means I have no energy. So I take an artificial EPO and it makes me feel better but shortens my remission....what fun! Lets hope my kidneys wake up and produce epo on their own.