I'm an awful patient. I'm an impatient patient. I'm pretty convinced I'm invincible. And I'm sadly getting older so healing is happening too fucking slow for my liking. The first 36 hours felt like Armageddon in my body, fever, chills, pain, nausea, weakness, the whole shebang. It would take me an hour to recover from the 10 minute drive to drop off the chicks at school. Takes longer in the afternoon because, apparently, sunshine and heat are not my friends.The bottle of antibiotics has two stickers on it: one tells me to drink lots of water, the other tells me to avoid prolonged exposure to direct sunlight. It would seem I'm now a fern.
So today, after a two-hour nap, I got up feeling great-ish. I did some light chores, a couple loads of laundry, emptied the dishwasher, and then went to sweep and Swiffer mop Teen Queen's bedroom floor. It was getting icky. Halfway through sweeping, I started sweating. Then shaking, dizzy, wobbly, little black dots swirling in my peripheral vision. Okay, just a little more and I'll rest before I've got to get the chicks. I finished sweeping and realized that was it, I was done.
I've been on the couch sweating for the last 30 minutes trying to psych myself up for the little trip to the school. What the hell happened to me? I'm the woman who shot Class IV-V rapids at Taos Box two weeks after an emergency c-section. I removed and replaced the hot water heater while suffering from bronchial pneumonia. I sprained my left ankle twice in a month and never used crutches. I'm tougher than nails, harder than concrete, and this stupid little infection is taking me down. I'm so mad and frustrated, and at the same time have no energy or strength to do anything about it.
So just fuckbeans. That is all.
Heal up soon.
ReplyDeletePerfect time for a new puppy. Just sayin'
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah....I know the feeling well.
ReplyDeleteIt's been two years since my "cardiac incident", and I have never (and never will, I'm told) recovered fully.
Things that used to take me 20 minutes now take an hour.
Things that used to take a couple of hours now take most of the day.
Things that took me all day now take several days, usually with some assistance from my son.
My stamina is down, and the drugs they give me keep my blood pressure so low that I feel like somebody adjusted my throttle stop from 100% to 60%.
Be glad it's "just an infection".
You'll recover 100%, while some of us won't.
Sorry for the rant.....
Oh sweetie, sweetie, sweetie, anger takes energy you don't have to spare at the moment. Yeah, you are one tough cookie, but at the moment you are in meltdown. Rest, calm and concentrating on any positives you can find is the priority. Being less than 100% is not your style, so get over it and get well.
ReplyDeleteSome anti biotics increase your susceptibility to sun burns... as a ginger you already burn easily so for you the medication will be like being under a microscope at high noon.
ReplyDeleteSecond, the fluids will help push the infection from your system. When your infected like that you need to keep hydrated lots. If your not peeing clear every hour; your not driking enough. Stay away from caffinated beverages too.
Lastly anything that gets your blood moving fast can spread the infection.
Exile1981
Wonder if this is one of those prehistoric Russian megaviruses?
ReplyDelete(oh, and get well soon!)
Sorry to be the eternal pessimist but “shaking, dizzy, wobbly, little black dots swirling in my peripheral vision” on minimal exertion is NOT what's supposed to happen you know.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds suspiciously like you're experiencing toxic shock. Please tell me you're regularly checking your temperature (high is 'a worry' at this stage, low is 'drop everything and get the doc there now' you realise of course), pulse rate (racing? weak? thready?) that you're not experiencing a 'postural drop' (feeling dizzy when you stand suddenly), cold periphery (that's fingers and toes to you), and without wishing to appear invasive, nosey or just pervy 'are you peeing OK' (drinking lots, not p'ing=shock in such a scenario)?
I suspect the oral antibiotics 'may' not be enough (oral 'loading' can take three days, so if you are not seeing 'any' improvement by now - worry). IV maybe … recommended. (more 'drastic' interventions may be needed if you either don't improve or get worse – so jump while you can, take the easy route, and doc will prefer to know).
It may not be, more may not be needed, but better 'safe than sorry' – er, please. Seriously! please.
To clarify. Feeling like death warmed over is one thing, the symptoms you are describing are another cooking utensil of pisceans all together.
ReplyDeleteNot to panic but the body has so many compensatory mechanisms that to show such symptoms indicates something 'very' wrong.
Able, my temp has been around 99F, part of my weakness is not eating. The antibiotics are seriously screwing my tummy, and I'm really bad about not eating anyway. I'll call the doc in the morning.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I'm peeing pretty much every hour, but my lips have started drying and chapping, and my skin is getting dry.
ReplyDeleteAnd my nose is cold and wet.
But what color is your pee? You need to pee clear. If it's dark your not drinking enough.
DeleteExile1981
The time to worry is when your feet smell and your nose runs. That means your poles have swapped!
ReplyDeleteMy combat medic son told of a crew of new nurses crowding around a boil. Seems it was an old cyst that exploded when the doc lanced it. Showered everyone around with rancid, putrid goop. The doc puked. That's bad. Like an airsick pilot. Glad you dodged that!
scrambled eggs sit easy on my stomach when antibiotics are involved. Might for you too. Rest easy!
The little old russian lady next door summed it all up perfectly. "Getting Old Suxs..."
ReplyDeleteHang in there Angel!
ReplyDeleteOK, mind at rest.
ReplyDeletejust to be nosey, what antibiotic (singular right?).
Here you would probably be on a third gen cephalasporin and probably metronidazole (cef & met is SOP to cover both aerobic and anaerobic, it's guaranteed a deep wound will have both - and both are broad spectrum until cultures confirmed exactly what is present to allow a possible 'more specific' change in prescription. SOP here would also be for a loading dose of IV, or up to three days, as oral can take days to get to a therapeutic plasma concentration, so it may be they've 'only just' started actually working). I don't doubt the doc will be well on top of this but one only is ... unusual (and neither should be hitting your gut-flora/fauna until 'after' your infection - then just drink one of those probiotic drinks/yoghurts to recolonise yourself with 'good' bacteria. Oh and watch out for 'that' bird yeast predictably too).
Remaining (mildly) febrile and thus 'glowing' (remember men perspire, ladies glow, horses sweat) a great deal you'll need to make sure you are replacing electrolytes (assiduously). Both 'may' affect your skin/lips but to be sure get them to check your urea &electrolytes (U's & E's) because I suspect you may be both not drinking enough and be out of balance with 'your salts' (both 'could' indicate a central compensatory mechanism/action for that shock I mentioned too).
Hint, pulse rate and 'volume' (how it feels) are the primary symptomatic indicators (the rest such as bp can be compensating to such a degree people have/do literally maintained a normalish bp with litres of blood/fluid loss - in toxic shock it isn't 'loss' as such but third spacing, any 'puffy areas/oedema' developing?, and vasodilation. Light headedness, shakes, dizziness and 'tunnelling' occur when the compensation is so significant no more is available for minor postural/exertional 'extra' demands). Off your food? 'Could' indicate central shunting to preserve critical organs - see anything 'can' be a sign in certain circumstances, but isn't necessarily so. Are you paler? feel cooler (cold nose lol) to the touch? That 'could' be shunting from periphery to central to maintain (see what I mean?). Peeing isn't all, colour, odour, amount, frequency rotfl (at least i didn't ask about bowel habits - which I would but was scared you might ban me).
Call me a worry-wart if you must but ... better safe than sorry.
(For any, god forbid, next time - get one of the newer pulse oximeters SpO2 meters for your emergency kit. The newest ones are now available with an algorithm that can 'pick up' on such indicators in the pulse wave form which show shock long before any other signs/symptoms, even the small 'finger probe' ones. It's the new A&E/ER/paramedic 'gold standard' diagnostic tool for all potential shock patients).
And if you're wondering whether, since 'all' symptoms 'could' indicate something major, whether doctors and nurses 'worry' about this. Yes. I personally have had at least three MI's (after eating curries - indigestion), I regularly get Parkinsons (when I drink too much coffee, become vague, shuffle about, on night shifts) and have had a primary case of Hansens Disease (Leprosy) every summer for years (after too much sun and bit of 'peeling). paranoid much?
I've been on minocycline for years for rosacea. The new anti is sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim. 800mg-160 mg. twice a day for the next three weeks. Dr. Janet had me on it for 10 days, then he put me back on it.
ReplyDeleteThere's no swelling, oozing, redness, etc at the site.
I'm just drinking water, gave up Cokes, don't drink coffee, I guess I could add some Gatorade, pee is very pale yellow.
My BP is typically low. Normal for me is around 115/60. When I went in for the first procedure with Dr. Janet, it was 130/80.
My mom was a hypochondriac, every gas pain was a heart attack, every headache was a brain tumor. I went the opposite direction. I could have half my body paralyzed and I'd think I was just tired and needed a nap.
Bactrim? Really? It's never used in such cases here (mainly pneumonias, UTI's and a few other areas) but … it does have some 'major' GI effects (ranging from 'upset stomach' to 'Clostridium difficile diarrhoea – sound familiar?). It does cover most of the Staph aureus, Strep, E. coli and the 'oral' anaerobes but it isn't, as far as I'm aware, 'recommended' for 'wound care' (yes, in some 'bone infections' but very limited use, again as far as I'm aware). (it's limited use here is due to its many and 'potentially' serious side-effects such as Stevens Johnson – not trying to scare you but just so's you are aware, 'better' alternatives available and … as far as a quick check shows it's 'only' used as, one of the many available, such in the US).
ReplyDeleteI am decidedly 'not' criticising (especially without even a portion of clinical data) but for an almost complete oral course (10 of 14 days) to have 'failed' warranting further surgical intervention to excise/evacuate a 'reservoir' (with the concomitant development of a degree of 'resistance' in the organism within it) to be followed by 'the same' would be … unusual again here.
Worldwide the recommended 'cover' is a cephalosporin (1st, 2nd or 3rd gen) (occasionally erythromycin or metranidazole).
Another side effect of Bactrim is its documented (and quite common) effect on blood sugar – it can lower it significantly causing …. dizziness, lethargy, nausea, etc. (familiar again?).
So? The symptoms you're/have experienced are probably 'all' linked to the Bactrim. 'I'd' suggest an alternative (for the number of reasons stated, including that with the previous 10 day course it 'should' have been at therapeutic levels immediately and yet ...) but that is between your doc and you, of course.
Good luck!
Oh and seriously!!! get some probiotics and antifungal (oral and topical) because you 'will' have such issues post such a lengthy course (both your gut and integumentary fauna/flora, thats all those bacteria you are normally literally covered in and full of that you try not to think about because they're 'yucky' but actually are the first line of defence against all the really bad bugs out there by crowding them out, will be 'gone' leaving the field open for any/all opportunistic pathogens in the environment) and (and the potential of C. diff is not something to court at any time, especially as it requires 'isolation' to prevent transmission).
ReplyDeleteJust sayin' lol
My wife has had/still has C. Diff and it's not something you want to get.
ReplyDeleteIt's extremely difficult to get rid of (they're still not sure hers has been "cured"), and is best avoided in the first place.
She has to be extraodinarily careful about what antibiotics she takes, as it can come roaring back unexpectedly.
Sorry to hear the healing isn't happening fast enough. Try and get some rest. If you can still laugh about it, you can't be feeling THAT bad :^)
ReplyDeleteKnow what you mean about getting old isn't cool - Little 'marks' on my skin I would heal over in two days now take much longer and it happens much easier too. The funny thing is I don't feel when it happens until I just happen to find it - nerve damage ?
Have a good weekend.