Week 27 - Sick No More

I was still wide awake at 2:00 a.m. but the alarm was set and I got up for work before 6:00. I was exhausted but my gut felt OK so off I went. I had my dairy free lunch all packed (I couldn’t eat dairy within 2 hours of one of my pills) and headed to UNL’s Parking Office to renew my handicapped permit before work. It felt good to be back in the swing of things. I had kept up with my emails from home but went through all the paper on my desk and actually ran a few queries before exhaustion set in. I left at 1:00 while I was still awake enough to drive home. 5 hours was better than nothing. I sat on my butt when I got home, knowing that if I took a nap I’d have an even harder time getting to sleep at night. I knitted at the library then went to bed early. Not that I could fall asleep but I had to at least try.

I did fall asleep at some point but I woke up at 4:00 a.m. when my neighbors left for vacation. I had figured I would wake up with all the car doors slamming right outside my window.  I emailed at that point that I’d be coming in late and turned off my alarm. There was no point in going in early if I was too tired to stay all day. I woke up just after 7:00 feeling better for the extra sleep. I had breakfast, made my non-dairy lunch and got dressed for work. The last thing I did was go to the bathroom and there was blood everywhere! Clearly my intestines were bleeding inside so I called in and headed back to the clinic for my fifth blood test in 8 days. The good news was, my BP, potassium and white counts were all normal. It was colitis – yet another side effect of the antibiotics. I was due to finish them Wednesday, which was not a minute too soon. I called in for the rest of the week, telling Nora that I was done fighting this and was just giving in. There was more sitting in my future.

Helen called that evening and asked if I had a yeast infection yet, which is a problem when you take antibiotics for so long. Now that she mentioned it, I was starting to itch. This was just the icing on the cake! Helen brought me some drugs and I started yet another assault on my body. This was getting old.

I was excited on Wednesday because I’d be finishing my antibiotics. I was so sick of not sleeping and having everything taste awful because of the metal mouth. It was a day like all the others – sitting, knitting, reading, watching TV, blah, blah, blah. I was bored to tears! I had eaten my last non-dairy lunch and taken my last levoquin when I started to itch. I went into the bathroom to check it out and I had broken out in a rash all over my body! It went from my neck to my thighs and down one leg. The only think that was itching was my right earlobe, which was swollen and bright red. I couldn’t get through to the clinic so called Helen at work. She said to stop taking the antibiotics (I only had 1 pill left – this couldn’t have happened sooner?) and go buy Benadryl. I had to take one then, which knocked me out, and two at bedtime. And I had thought the yeast infection was the icing on the cake. This must be the sprinkles!

The rash was less angry on Thursday morning (not so bumpy) but it had merged together into big red patches on my thighs. I had to avoid sun but it’s not like I’d been out much lately anyway and I was such a mess of blotches I wanted no part of seeing people. So more sitting, more knitting. I grilled myself a hamburger for lunch and was going to go to bed early (the insomnia was ebbing) but the fireworks at the park at the end of my street were so loud inside my house (I’m usually at the park so had never been in the house when they went off) that I decided to walk down the street and watch them. I stood in my neighbor’s driveway and watched them. Happy 4^th! Damn good thing I hadn't gone to New York.

Speaking of the trip, my cell phone kept ringing with an 888 number so I called back from my land line and it was USAir. They were calling because my flight was delayed. When I explained that I wasn't flying because I'd been ill, she said that because of the delay, they could give me a full refund. How cool is that! I had planned to eat the $127 (thankful that it was such a cheap ticket) but now I'd be getting my money back. Surely my fortunes were turning around.

I felt much better on Friday and actually did some food shopping in town and got a chicken sandwich form BK for lunch. It tasted great (the metal taste was almost gone) but felt wrong. I enjoyed it nonetheless. I made quiche and broccoli for supper, went to bed at my normal bedtime and actually fell asleep. I was clearly getting better.

I felt great on Saturday – normal for the first time in weeks. I had yogurt for breakfast (I’ve been eating lots of yogurt in an attempt to replenish the flora in my intestines) then met Lori at the Senior Center Thrift Shop for the bag sale. I got one bag to Lori’s four and then we went to Andrea’s to offload the stuff we’d gotten for her. Lori had to get home to her mom so we didn’t do our regular lunch at Chip’s. I knitted all afternoon and then went down to the basement to reclaim the craft room from all the crap. I unburied my sewing machine and did some mending and ironing. It felt great to finally be getting something done and it wasn’t killing me. I really felt fine. Yay!

Sunday was a normal chore day – laundry, dishes and all the cleaning that I’m doing myself again, alas… I finished the day making some delicious pasta with Italian sausage and the curly kale Lori had brought me from her garden. It was time for normal life and a nice week of working and being a productive member of society. Ready, set, go!