Friday, December 10, 2010

Hospital Stay....again :(

Well I'm back at good old "Club Med" aka Spectrum Medical Center in Grand Rapids MI. It's kinda just the usual stuff, but there's been a few complications. Let me start from the beginning. I had clinic back in September, my lung function was decreased slightly but not enough to be hospitalized. I had been having a lot of lung pain so the doctor put me on 600mg Ibuprofen every 8 hours. That really took care of the pain, but I started developing fevers in the evenings. I called the docs office and they put me on a 2 week round of Cipro. I finished that, felt better, and fevers subsided....for a short time. The fevers came back as well as fatigue, loss of appetite, and shortness of breath. Called the doctors again and they said they thought I was having mild to moderate symptoms and ordered a different oral anti-biotic for 2 weeks, Levaquin. I finished that round and felt somewhat better again and fevers went away again. But once again they came back a couple weeks later. By this time I was sick of of feeling sick! I called and told the nurse that I really needed to be admitted that my symptoms had came back again, she said she would talk to the doctor and call me back, of course the doctor said direct admit. So that was Tuesday, after 4 days I am feeling slightly better but some small complications have came up. They started me on my usual regimen of IV anti-biotics Tobramycin and Zosyn. Now 4 days have later my cultures came back and my strains of pseudomonas are "intermediate" to the meds they have me on. This means they are not the most effective to treat my bugs. The drug that is most effective I am allergic to. So today the doctor want to tried to give this drug to me with benedryl to try and stop the reaction, which is full body hives. Well as I suspected it didn't work, we stopped it and the doctor decided to go back to the original plan, to treat with the other 2 drugs even though they are not the best option. Here's my dilemma, I want to use the best drug I can to kick this bug! And there is a process called desensitization, where they give me small amounts of the drug slowly building the amount to full strength so my body doesn't react to the drug. I had it done before a couple years ago with a different drug and it worked. I am going to talk to the doctor tomorrow about this option. I just feel like I am already here and although yes I am starting feel better with the normal regime, I feel like if I don't get the best drug I will be back sooner then normal and risk losing more lung function that I can not afford to lose. So we will see what tomorrow brings and hopefully I can do whats best for my lungs.

4 comments:

  1. Jamie,
    Thank you for this update on you and your care. You are an excellent advocate for you! I hope today that your Doctor is able to start the regime that is needed to get you better and out of the hospital and staying home. I wish I could make a quick speed run out to see you, unfortunately distance and weather is a factor. I am grateful that websites such as these, FB, and email helps us stay connected. Love you Jamie and your spirit is beautiful! Our heart, thoughts, and prayers are with you and your family!

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  2. Yeah, sounds like you're resistant to the IV drugs that you can't take. That could change in a few months. Been through that many times. I'm just glad you're not doing Home IV meds every 4 hours for 19 days :) That's pretty rough. That was my regime the last time I was on home IV antibiotics.

    I hope you get to feeling better soon Jamie and I know you'll be home for the holidays.

    Are you allowed to exercise or do they have an exercise room? I usually walked the rounds while I was in the hospital, I never was hardly in my room, besides to eat and in the evening. I got better quicker, because the junk in the trunk was able to come up better, and the IV meds were able to kill the mucus better with me moving around a lot.

    Jesse

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  3. Jamie, I would ask the doctor about the desensitization also if I were in your shoes. Good Luck!

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  4. Thanks for the comment on my blog, Jamie. Good luck during your stay. I experienced those full body hives last year -- ugh! I really hope you get feeling better... and sooner rather than later!

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