I just had a long conversation with one of the nephrologists. He'd like to switch things up for The Boy eventually in terms of his hypertension medications. The Minoxidil, which he has been taking since August, is really not a great thing to be on long-term. They'd like to try something different for him if they can. He said that maybe Minoxidil is the only thing that works but possibly they could try something different.
He also would like to switch him off of the Cozaar and back onto the Vasotec (Enalapril) because taking both can cause hyperkalemia (um...yea...we know that). For those who are not accustomed to speaking in medical terms, hyperkalemia means too much potassium in the blood. By the way, The Boy's potassium was a bit over 4 today, which is great.
The new drug to try will be Izradipine. Not sure if I spelled that right but in future posts I will have looked it up. It is in the same class as Amlodipine/Norvasc (which is the drug he was on after his initial diagnosis and surgery). It is also in the same class as ProCardia, which has been his rescue medication of choice. Izradipine is somewhere in the middle.
He said that they don't want to screw with things right away and certainly not while he is still recovering from something.
Although, with the Minoxidil having a reputation for being cardiotoxic, his 200-plus heart rates on Friday night and into Saturday probably didn't help.
So that's the update from the kidney department. More later.
Summary: The Boy looks very good and is getting back to normal.
2 comments:
Glad to hear David is improving. He's always on my mind.
Yay! I'm so glad that The Boy is feeling and looking better. You tell him he's not allowed to scare us like that anymore. :-)
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