For the last few weeks, I have been having bone pain again. I had severe bone pain towards the end of 2009. At that time I had realized that it was due to multiple factors - the low Calcium level in my dialysate and the low levels of Vitamin D in my body.

The problem with things that develop gradually in the body is that you are not sure until it becomes bad. For the last few weeks, I had pain on and off but I did not do anything about it. I was always wondering if it really was serious or was it just a passing phase? For example, joint pains can happen once in a while without indicating anything important, right?

But for the last few days, the signs were unmistakable. The only difference from last time was the areas in which the pain was there. While last time, it started mainly in the feet and back, this time, it is in the shoulders and back. It is quite bad in the morning. In fact so bad that I invariably get up at around 4 - 4:30 with the pain!

A few days back, I concluded that something was definitely wrong and got a battery of tests done including those for 25 hydroxy Vitamin D3 and 1,25 dihydroxy Vitamin D3 apart from Calcium and PTH. Both the Vitamin D3 results came back low. Especially the 1,25 test was shockingly low. The report says it was less than 1.6 pg/ml whereas the normal is 19.6 to 54.3! They don't even give a value. Just less than 1.6, they say. So it could practically be 0!

I went over to my nephrologist yesterday and he put me on Calcitriol 0.5 mcg once daily. Hopefully, this should correct my problem.