Heading in the right direction

So at my last follow up, we decided that we were heading in the right direction.   This was music to my ears. 

However, we needed to add a new antibiotic to my regiment.  We talked about it the previous follow up, but decided since I was quasi stable that I should just remain on what I had been taken.

What antibiotics am I on?

• Mepron - Yellow Paint. - I take this all the time.  There are no "breaks" with this one.
• Omnicef - Two weeks on, two weeks off.  Repeat.  I think Omnicef is what is causing me to be cold - most of the time. 
• Zithromax - Two weeks on, two weeks off.  Repeat.  Zithromax is the one that is most likely going to give me stomach problems IF I don't eat with it.  
• Flagyl - take it on the 2nd week of Omnicef & Zithromax for two days and then off the rest of the time. 
• Rifampin - is my new medicine.  Many people told me that it would change my urine to orange or red.  Boy they weren't joking. - It's like I'm peeing Tang or Orange Gatorade.  It's not caused me any major problems, yet.  It's on the same schedule at the Omnicef, but I can't take it with food - so I must take it about an hour before the other ones since I *must* eat with those or I vomit. 

I go back in 7 weeks and see how things are going.  If things are continuing to go well, then we can stretch things out further.  However if it gets to the point where I've "hit a wall,"  I've been told that I'm going to hate my LLMD (he told me this himself) because he's going to want me to stop it all for four weeks - at which point symptoms will probably be going crazy and we'll either restart or talk about IV's. 


My biggest symptoms at this point are:

• Fatigue - can somewhat be controlled with b12 shots every 3 days
• Headaches - these are less severe than they have been in the past, but in the last couple of weeks they've restarted.
• Chills - I've been REALLY cold.  I think Omnicef is causing a portion of this, but it happens even during my off weeks - the severity is just lessened.
• Sweats - again, this has improved, but it's still pretty bad.  I can easily sweat through my clothes and it can lead to embarrassing wet armpits.  (hey it's honest!)  The sweat typically doesn't smell, but still embarrassing none-the-less
• Leg and/or Hip Pain.  Most of the time the pain is in one leg or another, rarely both legs.  And generally the other hip hurts - I think it's because I'm compensating for the pain in my leg with the way I walk.  
• Muscle Weakness - The other day I tried to lift a 5 pound weight - and I couldn't do it with one arm.

Okay - well that's all I have for  now.