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It was actually quite hellish. The infection had gone on for almost a year,
I thought I was suffering from year round allergies and I wrote it off. November of 2008 I was coughing up monstrous lugies
in the shower (sexy!) and after a visit to the rheumatologist I discovered I had
broken a few ribs from hacking (no wonder I was having trouble doing Pilates.) My internist/HIV/AIDS doc was hesitant about prescribing
Levaquin (my antibiotic of choice) for the sinus infection. In the past Levaquin had rapidly decreased my
T-cell count and you know how my doc feels about that! After spending a few months going to physical
therapy to heal my ribs I made an appointment to see my ear, nose & throat
specialist (I previously had my deviated septum corrected ten years ago.) OMG he was crazed after examining my head
x-rays, and insisted on surgery immediately.
The operation was a success but only for a while. Also, I was on 100mg of Doxycycline (a pretty
strong antibiotic) for two weeks to stamp out any other infection lurking in my
body. This drug did absolutely nothing
for me, it was like I was taking vitamins, and in fact it made my infection
worse. I'm guessing I broke a few more
ribs in the process of coughing because the pain became unbearable. Damn, I had MRSA and the only antidote was intravenous
Vancomycin, the queen bee of antibiotics!
This drug was super expensive over $1000 a drip bag. Luckily I only had to pay 5% but after all
was said and done I ended up shelling out over $600. Plus the added inconvenience of the PICC line
insertion, making showering a whole production of wrapping my arm in gauze and Saran
Wrap, frequent visits from the nurse, the blood test guy coming at 6am (that's
the middle of the night for me) delivering at my apartment at 10pm from
the pharmacy and that damn IV pole screwing up my feng shui!
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Oh Dave, so sorry to read what you have been through, I hope things will get better, i know it is not easy... i have been coughing as well for about a month and lost my voice for several weeks now... i am sort of better but not really recovered if i speak a lot... i lost my voice again and i feel like i have lot of mmm how you call it in english?... flema? that yellow material... on my chest.
Although, hey!! lets vent and then lest erase and re start again.... positive vision bring positive things... (so they say) and we are positive :) so that should be a plus!!!. I'm with you pal.... really.
Hey David, I wish you had told me you were in so much pain and all the other stuff .
I spent the last two years in and out of the hospital myself with different things going on with my body. mostly blood clots in my left leg.
I had to wear a catheter bag for about two months yuk. Anyway I hope you get better and better as do I.
Jerry :)
This makes my bout with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 2006 sound like a walk in the park. I do understand the problems you're describing, with regard to scheduling. My t-cell count was very, very low and my virul load was at 170,000+ copies at the time, resulting in severe night sweats. The docs had me taking all kinds of medication, in addition to going in every three weeks for chemo for four months running. Because of the scheduling of the meds, I was CONSTANTLY having to take something every two to 2.5 hours. The chemo screwed with my memory, as did the narcotics they had me on for the intense back pain I was feeling. The only way to keep it straight was to create a spreadsheet in Excel and plan when I was supposed to be taking 'whatever' and mark it off as I'd taken it. Of course, the schedule and the spreadsheet were constantly in flux because they would change up my meds, tell me to cut down on this or increase that... I can [sort of] laugh about it now but it was definitely NOT an enjoyable time of my life. I'm just glad that you're doing much better now. Dave, I'll shoot you an email from your website ---- or feel free to visit my blog and contact me from there. My blog addy is http://blog.quipsnquills.com
Namaste,
Michael
Sorry to hear about the hellish time you have been having. I hope things get better for you soon.
big bear hug,
Dab
Is there anything that I can do to help?