Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Blood Work

Woke up at 5am to start prepping for my blood work this morning at 8am. Slick got it in one stick. Crazy thing is that here it is ... 5 hours later and I am still bleeding. This is unusual so I suspect that my blood work will be all wonky (platelets low or something like that).

Go for a follow up on Saturday.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

No Herxing!!!

So one thing that is a little frightening for a Lyme patient (post major treatment) is to be treated with an antibiotic. I guess I can't say this for all Lyme patients, but for me ... I worry that there will be a Herx reaction. This is the reaction that occurs when large amounts of toxins are released into the body as bacteria die during antibiotic treatment. I've pretty much avoided anything stronger than Amoxil since my Lyme treatment. In fact, I've pretty much even avoided it by taking IV Vitamin C when I felt it was getting close to antibiotic time.

I've had both a Penicillin type medicine and a Macrolide and ... guess what folks ... no herx reaction! I've had a little pain in my back, but the pain could be attributed to how much I've been coughing. This sure beats the "Oh My, I'm about ready to die from all these bacteria dying" feeling. I really feel that I have this sucker beat. I mean sure I have a weak immune system due to this sucker and sure there are many other things going on in my body thanks to dear old Lyme ... BUT the fact that I am not herxing during antibiotic treatment for Bronchitis ... means that I am in fact, getting better!

(even though I'm still coughing up a lung or two due to the Bronchitis)

Today is the last day of antibiotic. Hopefully, I'll start feeling better. I should know by Wednesday if Zithromax took care of it or not.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Bronchitis

The whole reason I went to the doctor on November 2nd was to prevent Bronchitis. I knew that if I kept that infection any longer that the bacteria would travel on down to my lungs and well I'd be feeling like an elephant was sitting on my chest.

After finishing my antibiotics, I didn't have a long period of "health" before I got sick again. The lovely stomach flu hit and after it departed from my body, I got a small cough. It wasn't that bad, but along with the cough I felt the urge to clear my throat. Within a few hours of the onset of coughing, I began to feel it. It hurt to breathe. My lungs felt wet and heavy. This was all on Monday evening. I was hoping that by Tuesday I'd feel better, but to no avail. Then Wednesday morning I felt even worse. It was a chore just to breathe and I struggled to catch my breath after coughing spells.

So I made the decision to go to the doctor's after work. I called my PCP (Primary Care Physician) to see if they by chance had any sick appointments available. TO my surprise, they did with the caveat being they needed me there in the next hour. I got there 30 minutes before my appointment time and expected that I would have a huge wait in the waiting room or in the exam room. However, that is not what happened at all. I had enough time to fill out the paperwork and shortly after I was called back. I had enough time to have 3 coughing spells before the doctor came in commenting on how wonderful I sounded.

I told him of my ailments over the last couple of months and he listened to my lungs. The words crackling and wheezing were mentioned a couple of times. He went to get a sample inhaler so I could get started on treatment right away, but they were out of samples. Indeed, I had Bronchitis. He faxed over the script for Zithromax and the Inhaler I'd need. I've had one dose of the antibiotic (it's a one dose a day for 5 days macrolide). This morning I woke up without a sore throat for the first time in a few days!

I've also had my hand at the inhaler on two different occasions. Once last night as soon as it got home and this morning. My lungs feel so much lighter and I'm actually coughing stuff up without the use of an expectorant. Delsym seems to be working to keep the coughing controlled.

Funny thing is that my blood work was postponed a few weeks so I would be away from antibiotics when the blood was done. Now, my blood work is on Tuesday ... So I'll have antibiotics and Albuterol in my system. Oh well. It will be interesting to see what the blood work says.

My guess is that the Amoxil didn't knock out the infection completely. So it festered and festered and then reappeared immediately as Bronchitis.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Fun House Glasses

I received the phone call that my glasses had arrived on Thursday. I was excited to get the call, but then was disappointed to find out my optical adjuster wouldn't be in until Monday. I decided to be patient because my optical adjuster never fails. Then I wound up puking my guts up a few hours later so I was glad I waited.

Anyways, Monday afternoon I drove up to the eye care place only to discover that my favorite lady was not in after all. I was disappointed, but decided to place trust in the optical lady that was there. I put on the new glasses and immediately felt a touch of motion sickness. Things were magnified and distorted. She made a few adjustments and sent me on my way. I wore them for five hours when I had to take them off. Everything was too tall and too wide ... I couldn't take it. Something was off. Really off. They told me though before I left to come back around 1 the next day and my favorite lady would be there.

So I made a special trip up there (it's about 20 minutes from my house and almost an hour from work) on Tuesday and got there at 1 on the dot. Then I saw a sign that wasn't there the day before, "Closed from 1 to 2:30 for training!." I have to be honest. I was very upset. Here I was, not feeling well and I had to wait 90 minutes to be seen. Decided to use the opportunity to walk around the few stores in the area and wasted 90 minutes in well .. 90 minutes.

I went back in to see my favorite lady and she was thrilled to see me, but disappointed to see me in my old frames. I told her about my magnification and motion sickness problem. She took them to the back. She put them under her fancy machine. I could see her perplexed look .. her I'm going to fix this look and then her I'm now cleaning the lens look. She came back out and said "how's this?" I put them on my face and the motion sickness feeling was much better.

Turns out that the Axis was off in the left lens. Then she explained to me that in my right eye, the astigmatism had changed by "one click." That is what made everything appear bigger and a little distorted. Then the axis problem in the left lens caused even more distortion and the combination caused major motion sickness. She spent a good 20 minutes working on the position of the glasses (nosepads and ear pieces). I had to go back again today ... and by the way they feel tonight ... I'll be back on Friday. I waste so much gasoline trying to get my new glasses adjusted.

I still have a little distortion, but it's a typical amount of distortion as my brain and eyes learn to use the new prescription. Next on Living the Lyme Life my recent diagnosis ....

1. Sinus Infection (November 2nd)
2. Stomach Flu (November 18th)
3. Bronchitis (November 24th)

Fun House Glasses

There's not enough time this morning to write about my day of Fun House Glasses, but be prepared to come back here later on for my adventures in new glasses.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Never ending Illness

I sit here not really knowing whether to laugh or cry. I'm sick of being sick. I'm sick of talking about being sick. I have been fighting illness since the early days of October. We're nearing the end of November! I've been somewhat concerned, but until today (well ugh really 'last night') I wasn't alarmed because it's starting again -- already.

Back up to September where I began to have an allergic reaction to something. We still aren't sure what caused the reaction, but needless to say I wound up at Urgent Care getting something I certainly avoid at all cost -- Steroid Shot. Also took home a round of Steroids to take at home too. I must have been glutton for punishment. Here I am two months later and I realize that it must be the catylist (sp).

In early October, I began to fight off the common cold. I fought it off dutifully with Vitamin C, Zinc, Magic drops and even some OTC medications. I could feel nasal drainage in the back of my throat and had sore throats due to this. I also had small headaches. I did the best I could until October 24th when it hit me like a 2x4. Within 3 days, I had a fever and excess nasal drainage coming out of the nostrils. It was the beautiful green color that nurses used to say indicated infection. In order to prevent another trip to Urgent Care, I scheduled an IV appointment. You all know how that went, but let's recap -- shall we?

On the Friday I went in and got stuck twice over a three hour period, but wound up going home with no IV's. I went back on Saturday and got the IV. All was right in my world -- so I thought. I woke up the next day realizing I hadn't pushed out the infection ... in fact I was worse. I dosed myself up with OTC meds and went to work hoping I'd be able to leave early. That was a no go for launch however. That night, my boss told me I could stay home and rest since I had been feeling so terrible. I used this time to run to the nearest Urgent Care. They prescribed Amoxicillin and all was right with the world -- so I thought. I took this for the amount of time and slowly felt better. I thought about asking my Lyme doc for something else, but I was feeling better so I decided to hold off. November 12th was the last day of my antibiotic and I was doing well (or so I thought).

A few days later, I started feeling a little bit off. I couldn't explain it really, but I did have a headache. By November 17th, I felt a touch of vertigo and of course that's the day of the infamous puking incident(s). We all know what happened there and I won't rehash (pun intended) that one again. So fastforward to today (well by now .. yesterday). I felt pretty good at work. No particular problems, but I did notice that my lungs felt heavy. However, they had been feeling that way since the vomiting commenced. So I *assumed* that it was from that.

Well around 6pm, I started getting a little tickle in my throat. I thought ,hmm that's odd, and went on my way. By 8pm, I was coughing to the point where I decided to take old trusty (well new reliable) Delsym so I'd sleep. (you see where that got me). I honestly feel like I either have another bout of Bronchitis OR Pneumonia. SERIOUSLY? Can't I just get well? (and some rest would be good too)

I'm going to go trodge off to bed feeling the heaviness in my lungs. And you know it's Thanksgiving Week ... I pretty much refuse to go to Urgent Care for the third or fourth time in 2 months and regular PCP is booked up and so is Lyme doc. I go for blood work in one week and my Lyme appt the Saturday afterwards. I've also sent my doc a letter similiar to this post.

Either way ... I just want to get well. AND STAY THAT WAY.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Vomiting and Blogging and TMI

Gross post ahead ... TMI ... if you don't want to read it .. skip it .. I'm warning you.

Okay one might blog too much when in the process of cleaning up the bathroom from one own's stomach contents ... that I think, "I should photograph this .. this is MASSIVE."

You can thank me now that I didn't photograph the magnitude of said explosion. It is only now there in my memory. It took THREE old towels to clean up the bathroom floor. Along with almost a whole roll of TP. The casualties in the explosion were three magazines. The shower curtain got washed along with the bath floor mat and my clothes. The weight scale almost got wiped out. My purse was almost hit in the massive explosion. I don't even know how my shoes were spared in such a mess.

Aren't you glad I didn't take photographs? :D

BTW: I am feeling better today. I'm still very weak from 17 hours of sickness. Oh and my husband can never ever say I didn't give him anything. In November alone, I gave him a sinus infection AND the stomach flu. Isn't he a lucky fellow to be married to me?

For a real Lymie ... Stomach flu = 17 hours of throwing up and more than 48 hours afterwards to recover.

For the husband ... Stomach flu = 4 hours of vomiting, 8 hours of sleeping and now he acts as if nothing ever happened.

Friday, November 19, 2010

SICK

Yesterday I got home and didn't feel well. My stomach was feeling kind of "gnarly" and I thought I was hungry. I had a couple of pieces of salami (in hindsight ... bad choice) and a protein bar and went to go get my hair done. AS I was sitting there, I began to feel worse. My head began to pound. Almost near the end of her styling my hair, I told her I had to leave. I just felt horrible.

I got home ... and a moment that can only be described as the exorcist happened. Then it happened almost every hour for the next 17 hours. Fever, Vomiting and Diahrea. Gah I feel awful. I'm dehydrated, but I am starting to feel better. I've not gotten sick in about 6 hours though I still feel nauseated.

It's going around at work (the kids and other teachers) so once the first round hit, I knew I was in for it. So I called the boss to find out if she'd prefer I just go ahead and call out (which I never do) or if she wanted me to wait and see if it was just what I ate. She told me to call her in a couple of hours, but in about an hour she called me saying she found someone to cover my shift. I'm so thankful for the teacher that was willing to cover for me b.c I was still pretty sick this morning when I was supposed to go to work.

Ugh. Sinus infections and Stomach Flu all in the month.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Thanksful Tuesday

Today I find myself thankful for something. I find myself thankful for this one thing often actually.

I am thankful for my friends. My TRUE friends. The Friends that get me on a deeper level. They know what I'm thinking before I'm even thinking it.

It's just nice to have people that know me that well.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

See Saw



I went to the eye doctor today for my vision test. Did I pass? Yes & No. :)

The past few weeks I have been having pretty terrible headaches. I half thought it was change in vision and half thought it was the sinus infection. As the infection improved and my headache did not, I realized that more than likely my vision had changed at least slightly. And yes, each eye changed just slightly. So new lenses have been ordered. My insurance won't pay for new frames, but I ordered some anyways because my current pair are scratched. I'm hoping that by Thanksgiving I'll be sporting a new look and that within a few days of getting them that the headache will be no more.

*someone asked about my prescription. Actually I have no clue. I never pay attention to the numbers. If I remember, I'll ask my optical consultant when I go into pick them up.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Sick Check In

Remember when I said, '"Well if it "may" cause drowsiness, it might as well say "WILL" cause "sleep for 1/2 day."'


Well last night I started having some eye itching and swelling. It happens (more often than I care to admit). So I decided to take the Delsym Night Time cough syrup with antihistamine. Well the typical adult dose is 30ML. I poured it into the dosing cup and decided that it looked like it could knock me out for a good 30 hours so I poured 15 ML back into the bottle leaving me with only 15 ML to take. I took it at 8:30 and was asleep by 8:45. I didn't budge until 9:30 .... THIS MORNING. If you take into account last night was the end of Day Lights Savings time, I slept for 13 and 1/2 hours on 1/2 a dose. I can't imagine if I had taken the full dose.

Anyways, I do feel better. :) I'm still on antibiotics. I've only had three bouts of running to the bathroom. I was supposed to have blood work on this coming Wednesday, but we pushed it back to the week after Thanksgiving since there are several factors that could really affect the blood work results. I go get my eyes checked on Tuesday. I imagine that in about 2 1/2 weeks I'll be sporting new glasses.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Getting there!

With each passing day, I feel a little bit better. On Wednesday and Thursday, people kept recommending to me to try a little cough syrup I had never even heard of. Where do I live? The Dark ages?



This stuff is liquid gold man! Thursday I was coughing so bad to the point of almost puking. And by almost ... I mean (TMI alert!) something came up and I was forced to swallow or I would have vomited in my car. And for those of you that know me, know that I LOVE my car! I was in tears from coughing so hard Thursday evening. I told my husband about this stuff and the trooper he was went out after his work event to get me some. When I woke (from very little sleep from all the coughing), I discovered three bottles of the stuff. One for Day time relief and Two for Night time relief. The thing is .. the Day Time stuff works so well, that I didn't even need to use the Night time stuff (b.c it has three other meds in it that I didn't really need last night).

I actually have a difficult time trying new medicines because I'm terribly sensitive to things. You know the side effect list of things ... if one says "MAY cause drowsiness." Well if it "may" cause drowsiness, it might as well say "WILL" cause "sleep for 1/2 day." Things that don't even say "may cause drowsiness" cause me drowsiness. Sometimes when I take Tylenol, I sleep for hours! Plus lately, I've been having weird allergic reaction to things. Example is that the other day I had a fever so I took Motrin and it caused my eyes to swell. I'd say who is allergic to Motrin, but I know a lot of people are allergic to different fever reducing meds. It's just weird that I haven't had a problem in 34 years and all the sudden I am ...

Anyways, Delsym has been wonderful. I took it before going to work yesterday. I only had one major coughing spell instead of a continuous coughing spell I had been having. I took it again last night before bed. I slept all night soundly.

On the antibiotic front, I've been taking Amoxil since Tuesday evening. It's really starting to work. My nasal passages are pretty clear and my nose is no longer running like a faucet. And you know that lovely post nasal drip that causes serious sore throat? Yah that's disappearing too. The antibiotics have only given me one round of bathroom runs (PUN intended) after dose 3.

As far as I can tell, I'm not really having any herx reaction. The only thing really "off" was that yesterday I felt like a complete moron ~ like washing my hands and turning around and washing them again ... or throwing bibs in the trash instead of the laundry or even being baffled as to why formula wouldn't come out of the bottle when I've used this type of bottles many times (it had a stopper in it .. DUH!). It added some humor to the class yesterday. In my defense, the others were just as stupid yesterday. We kept teasing each other all day about "How old are you?" (indicating that we were in our 90's instead of in our 30's).

I've been enjoying helping out at the other school. I'm feeling very appreciated (not that I don't feel appreciated where I already work) by the teachers. The teachers want me to stay on permanently. I haven't made a decision. I love both schools. Each school has it's pro and con. For right now, I'm splitting my time between the two schools.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

The friend that won't leave

So I've had this cough since Sunday. I've pretty much coughed non-stop since. I'm surviving though. I've had 4 doses of Antibiotics and only had round of stomach problems. I call that a success. :o) I'm hoping that by Saturday I'll be feel tons better. Even though I sound terrible and the cough just doesn't want to leave, I actually do feel better today than I have since Thursday. So I'm heading in the right direction.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Amos The Amoxy

Usually when I leave the Urgent Care, I remember why I hate regular physicians. This was a P.A and I was very impressed. He even asked me what generally worked best with my bacterial infections. I told him usually either Amoxil or Zithromax and that I preferred a suspension. He was very willing to write it for Amoxil and to write it out for a suspension without question. I'll be taking 1200 mg of Amoxicillin twice a day for 10 days for a total of 2.4 grams a day. If I'm remembering correctly, the typical adult gets between 500 mg and 875 mg twice a day.


I don't remember what my dosing was when I took Amoxil with other antibiotics for Lyme Disease, but 400mg/5ml is the largest dose in a suspension form. I just don't recall how many ML's I took. Usually day one and two go okay, it's days three and four on antibiotics post Lyme diagnosis that are the killer. Just wanted to give a good update not only for you guys, but for me to remember later on. :)

So the P.A. said that generally what happens is that people get a small virus that they fight off on their own in about 5 days. Since my symptoms have been going on for about 10 days, it has mutated into a bacterial infection. This is typically what happens in my case. However if I get the Vitamin C IV quickly enough, it helps kill off the small virus so that it doesn't change into the bacterial infection.

There is a small chance that I'll have a herx reaction due to the antibiotics killing off any Lyme bacteria lingering around in my body. I have blood work on next Wednesday. It will be interesting to see how things look while I'm on antibiotics.

Still sick

**Update since this morning** I know the way my body runs and it was either try to squeeze in yet another IV or go get some antibiotics today. I personally know that Tuesdays are my LLMD's business IV day so I didn't think I'd be able to get squeezed in for one and for two, I wasn't sure they'd be able to get an IV started so I decided to hit the Urgent Care to go ahead and get this infection cleared up. I'm sick of being sick and didn't think I could wait until Saturday to take care of the problem. So Amos the Amoxicillan and I are becoming reacquainted today. I would take it right now, but really the best dosing is at 12 hours. So I'll wait until about 5:30 to take it so I can take it at 5:30 twice a day for 10 days.

**** original post *****

I'm still not running on all 4 cylinders. In fact, I'm running on maybe only 2 of them. Last night, I got a really kind email from my boss. She told me she knew I hadn't been feeling well and offered for me to take today off. I would like to say that I accepted this offer, but it wasn't taken guilt free. I always feel so guilty about taking time away from all my "babies." I feel like I'm letting them down or something of that nature. Truth be told, I need today to be at home curled up in the bed dosed up on otc medications. All my waking moments will be spent wishing I was teaching my kids how to read.

I've passed this lovely germ to my husband who is now more than likely also going to be spending today at home as well. So we both get a day off of work, but more than likely we'll spend it sleeping. When we get sick, he tends to get it in the ears and I get it in the lungs/throat. Last night, he could barely hear and I could barely speak. Makes for quite interesting conversation.

I guess one of the main reasons I feel guilty is that I haven't stepped foot into my school in a week's time. I volunteered to help at another school so I have been there. There was no time to prep the children to let them know I was leaving and that I would be back soon ... I just was gone. I feel so guilty about that. Now it's time to hit the DayQuil and try to get some relief from the symptoms I'm feeling.

PS, hubby has Lyme appt on Saturday. So if I'm still like this, I may try to see if he'll write me a script since I've tried all the other routes.