BP been trending upward

[Heather Still]

Well, hopefully no big deal, but the past week or so Ryan's bp has been slowly trending upward. He usually runs 110/70 ish. Been running 120/80's and a few times including tonight he's 130/90. Doctor seems to be thinking that it may be part of a growth spurt and increase in appetite. God knows he's 10 and doesn't ever want any food that's actually good for him, the saltier the food, the happier he is. Guess I gotta start buckling down more on that. So, we're increasing a bp med and going to do an echocardiogram soon since he's had so many bp issues his entire life. Seems as though he's been so great for so long that I'm always waiting for the moment that the crash comes again. Hopefully it's not happening any time soon. Not as big as most issues with this illness, but have been enjoying the down time for a while now.

[Heather Still]

Well, just as I thought. H&H are down, BUN & Creatinine up. LDH and platelets steady. At infusion now waiting for doc to call back and let me know plans. I have a horrible headcold and fever. Jim is out of town for a week...let's hope there's nothing big in the works.

[Linda Burke]

How's Ryan's BP doing? Hope you're feeling better....eat two chocolate mini-eggs and email me in the morning!

[Cheryl Biermann]

Actually, Colette's observation about the fluctuations and parent observastion, is true...When N first started soaring upward again, I started worrying about fluid on the lungs-not to scare you Heather, this seems to be a problem unique to N. Today as I sit here in dialysis, and listen to the O2 alarm go from the low 80s to 100, (the first time since they started monitoring it this way), I am not surprised. Spring leads to extra mucus, YUCK, his allergies, before his kidneys were knocked out, would go crazy then he would get fluid on his lungs. Maybe it won't get to that level with hemo. That is what I theorized. The hemo pulls the fluid off much better than peritoneal, when he also used to have episoded of fluid in his lungs. So tonight I expect things to get better.

[Colette Ann Frysz]

There is a lot that happens to these kids growing up as they must. Jessica used to have periods of high and low bps. My explanation to the doctors was growth even though this from what I understand is not an explanation. But consider what happens to a body as it matures and grows. I think it's only natural that these kinds of fluxes in blood pressure would occur. Also the changes of the seasons used to create changes in her bps. It used to happen time and again but there is no science to prove this out. I think that parent observation here is invaluable to your child's health. I'd kind of monitor the situation and see if you can find a pattern between his bps and what his body is actually doing. We tend to forget that these kids do experience some normal things.

[Cheryl Biermann]

Yeah, before they wrecked Nathan's kidneys with the embulism they figured they'd try and konk them out with Enalapril, didn't work, obviously. We've always been lucky about potassium, he leaks it! That's good about his Aranesp. Glad to see it is doing so well for him. If he likes junk food, have you tried the lime dorritos? That's less sodium and out of a bag, I'm thinking here what you maybe haven't already tried...one thing Nathan did was to cook with the dietician...since then he Loves to cook and actually eats some of it. I can relate to the liking only what's not good for you too.

[Heather Still]

Cheryl....not bacon - bologna, bologna, bologna. And he'd prefer anything out of a can over a home cooked meal. Ryan's never been on growth hormone, talked about it a few times, but he's holding steady in the 5th percentile and I'm okay with that. He's such a picky eater that I have a hard time getting him to eat unprocessed foods. Plus it's hard because the good foods he likes like carrots, potatos, bananas, milk, etc he can't have because of his renal diet restrictions.
His H&H remain quite stable. His hematocrit hangs in at 30-33. He is on Aranesp now instead of Procrit. He's been on it for a couple years now. It's longer lasting and he only gets 100mcg every 6-8 weeks. I just worry about a bp med increase, especially the lisinopril they want to increase because that's one that is a little harder on the kidneys.

[Cheryl Biermann]

I think it's contagious, Chloe, Nathan and now Ryan! Ryan's doctor's point about the growth spurt made me think of something I had heard before, that growth hormone can contribute to that...but you'd think that after a year, we'd be safe. By the way, Ryan's favorite foods don't include baccon, baccon and more baccon do they? One think we found is that the craving for salt is partially because it is a strong flavor, we found Nathan will eat things with lemon and lime also. You might try other strong flavors. It took us a while to convince him to even try them! How is Ryan's H & H and how much epogyn is he on? Those are also BP buggaboos. I'm sure they've already looked at that stuff though.

[Svetlana Finley]

Anna loves salty food too, so we had to get her BP meds up at one point, but then it went down on it's own. I hope it just growth and nothing else. Hope it will go down very fast!!!

[Amy Swarbrick]

Hopefully the higher bp's are just from a growth spurt like your doctor was thinking. May there be a lifetime more of "down time."

[Jodi Kayler]

Bummer about the BP. Maybe it is just a bad week. I hear you about never wanting to eat and loving salty foods. If you figure out how to get him to eat healthier, PLEASE let me know how you do it. =)