Q:
My husband was diagnosed with FSGS last year and was placed on 70 mg of prednisone daily. The nephrologist had tapered his dose down the he went into remission then. However, when he dropped it down to 10mg, he had a major relapse and then he has been on 70 mg again. It is just causing so many problems. The only other alternative we have been told about is cyclophosphamide. Do you have any suggestions about this?
A:
There is no difference or we can say it is more worse if your husband receive cyclophosphamide. You want your husband to change treatment, just because his
FSGS relapses so easily. But have you even thought why FSGS on your husband relapses so easily?
Similar with prednisone, cyclophosphamide is also a kind of hormone medicine. In FSGS, both prednisone and cyclophosphamide show quick and visible treatment effects, but disappointedly, FSGS relapses once patients stop taking or reducing dose of them. And this is because these hormone medicines are only effective in controlling FSGS symptoms. They fail to remove causes of kidney damages, so FSGS relapses sooner or later.
At present, you husband needs to find out what causes his kidney damages and then remove the causes. In this way, further kidney damages will be avoided. When the cause is removed, you husband also needs to repair kidney damages, which can help to increase kidney function. Strong kidney function is the precondition for FSGS patients to live a life without medications. In terms of your husband, there is dead renal tissues in his body. We can not bring these dead renal cells back to life, but we can repair damaged renal cells. In this method, although his kidney function can not be recovered completely, it can be increased to some extent. As long as there is much more kidney function, your husband can reduce dose of medicines effectively without relapse of FSGS.
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