Today has been a slow day. I had to go to clinic this morning (this is something new that I should update about - please give me a sharp nudge if I forget) to get the PICC dressing changed, and to show my proficiency at doing tubing changes, which have to be done every three days. Mom and I passed the test so we got the go ahead to do it at home without a nurse. This is great because it means we only have to go to clinic once a week to get the dressing change done. Today's appointment was pretty early (at least for me) being at 8:50am. The tubing has to be done just before the IV bag is changed every morning, which has to be done before either 1) the IV pump indicates that the bag is empty or 2) 11:00am when the pump starts infusing. Basically, which ever happens first. Because we didn't have the go ahead to do this on our own yet, we had to go to clinic before 10:00am, and just get the PICC dressing done at the same time. But now that we can do the tubing ourselves, we can go to the clinic anytime we like one Tuesdays, even if the tubing happens to need changing that day. For the next five weeks we scheduled an appointment for each Tuesday at 2:00pm.
Compared with the nurse I had last week (my first time at clinic), today's was amazing. From the experiences I have had, the younger nurses are much friendlier and relate-able. The older ones seem to have this matriarchal attitude, and they hate it when people question them or have questions/concerns about anything. But the younger ones I have had have been all around super awesome fantastic.
I have been having terrible headaches and been feeling feint for the last few days. I told today's nurse about this when she asked me how I have been doing. She checked a giant package with all the side effects for all the different IV medications and said I was defiantly having side effects of the Tazocin. She said if they continue or get worse to call the clinic or my infectious disease specialist. Tazocin is not user friendly stuff. There also doesn't seem to be much that can be used in its place, so we are thinking I might just have to tough is out for 5 1/2 more weeks. This sucks. The headaches make it hard to concentrate. The faintness makes it hard to do anything active. And in general I have been to tired to want to do anything. Oh, and don't forget the stomach troubles... but I won't get into those here.
All (and I literally mean all, not most, not many, not some, but all) of the nurses and health care professionals I have meet over the last weeks have been flabbergasted that I am on 12 weeks of IV antibiotics. I suppose there reactions indicate how much of a bitch this infection is to oust. Most people, the nurses tell me, are on IV antibiotics anywhere from 7 days to 6 weeks, but they see very few doing 12 weeks. It gets frustrating hearing this all the time. I don't like to think that I have been sick enough to need all this stuff. I don't like to think about everything that has happened and how uncertain things still are. All that I can really do it be thankfully that I am not one of the people who do this for more than 12 weeks e.g. those on chemo of fighting Lyme disease.
After clinic mum and I drove around a bit. It was a beautiful morning - not cold but with a nice breeze and a weak but slowly growing stronger sun. We drove through on of the nicer cemeteries in the city, enjoying the refreshing smell of freshly cut still wet from the last storm grass. We got home and I promptly fell asleep after getting really excited about what came in the mail (Lego that I ordered last week from Ebay!). Sleep is always a great thing after PICC dressing changes because they always make my arm itch an extraordinary amount. Every week on Tuesday I take a nap and by the time I wake up (3:30pm today... bad, I know, but I am just that tired even after a full nights rest0 the itch is thankfully gone. I had a terrible headache for a couple hours, but now (just after 9:00pm) it has let up somewhat. I think I will try to read a bit before bed, or look at my Latin workbook.
I hope I feel a bit better tomorrow. It would be nice to enjoy the warm weather before it becomes unbearably hot, instead of feeling all crumby. Because of the stuff I am on I burn easily so I can't stay outside long, but I should at least try to sit in a comfy chair under the parasol outside.
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