Half the Energy, Twice the Spunk

Sorry for the lack of updates, getting back into the home groove really eats up the time!

I was discharged in early January with a PICC line (a central line that starts in the arm and threads to the heart) after I lost my chest line to infection.

The PICC worked alright with a bit of trouble that required daily dressing changes, but the TPN end of things was going very well.

Unfortunately a week ago it became apparent that the skin around my PICC dressing was no longer just irritated, but very infected.

Last Sunday I was started on 2 IV antibiotics, requiring 3 ER trips daily at about 2 hours a time. the alternative was admission and we all preferred me not being admitted.

So we limped along on this schedule until Thursday when it was decided that the infection was not improving, and I was also clearly allergic to 2 of the last 'big gun' IV antibiotics left to work with (clyndamycin and gentamycin).

Thursday night saw me in the City at the ER, my PICC was pulled, I was given a monster dose of solumedrol, and put on high dose prednisone to try and wrestle the allergic reaction down.

In a long, stressful and rediculous way I found myself racing through a snowstorm on the highway on Friday morning to try and get to the hospital in time for a cancelled spot on the surgical list to get a tunneled central line put back in my chest. Without that surgery I was going to have to be readmitted for the week until they could get a permenant line in me again.

But - in a bizarre twist of luck and fate, by noon on Friday I had my line in my chest, and was home that night with no hospital admissions.

I was put on an antbiotic I'm NOT allergic to, and that along with round the clock benadryl and high dose prednisone and I'm finally on the med - the infection on my arm has cleared up and I am getting to feel a scootch more human. my new antibiotic require only 1 infusion a day too which is awesome.


Now for the roller coaster part (yea - that was only one aspect of our rediculous week)

Both the boys are sick. Brandon tonight spiked a high fever after finally going 2 days without one... it's a nasty bug that has been hanging around for a week now. It's wearing him down pretty hard.

As we limp along on the 55% income that is provided by EI (for which we are VERY grateful) not surprisingly things start breaking. Expensive things.

Bills come in because of mixups on the phone companies end (they have admitted this and are in the process of correcting it) that randomly take 1100$ out of our bank account.

On top of all this we are all waiting on egg shells to find out just when I will be getting my appointment at Mayo, and all the general discouragement that comes with facing the reality that I am very sick and there is not magical cure in site.

Up and Down.

Hopefully tommorrow will be more up.