"It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver."

"It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver."

~Mohandas K Gandhi

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Dr D is awesome.

So, last week I had my appointment with Dr D.  I brought my datebook with me.  I keep a log of sick days, IVIG dates, and antibiotic usage in there.  When he came in and asked me how I was doing, I greeted him with, "This winter has SUCKED!!!"  He chuckled and asked what I meant, so I opened the date book to September and began giving the summary: "Okay, IVIG here, three weeks later, sick enough to go on an antibiotic- Avelox-  Three weeks later, IVIG, day after treatment, needed to start on an antibiotic..." 

The pattern that emerged was that a week to ten days after finishing an antibiotic, I was sick enough to need a new one.  Dr D agrees with my thought- namely, I've been colonized by Some Kinda Bug, and was never on the right antibiotic or on long enough to kill it.  So he put me on Suprax, one I'd never heard of before, for 28 days.  It's an older drug, he said, that, "...went away for a while and is now starting to come back."  I have to call him in mid-April to report in.   Oh, and I'm to "...eat a lot of yogurt this month."  That part is no big deal- I usually eat a good amount of yogurt, anyway. 

So, now it's a week later.  Most of the crud has gone from me, except for a Godawful cough, worse than usual.  It's nonproductive and very wheezey.  I've been using my rescue inhaler every four hours around the clock, including at night.  Today I had to bring my son to the doctor (I think he and I ended up with the same bug), so I called Dr D's office to find out if he'd be willing to call in a scrip for prednisone to my local pharmacy, since I was just there last week.  The receptionist took down all the info, and called me back two hours later- no problem, it's already been called in.  Yay!  I love Dr D.  He's a great guy- he understands that I totally know what's going on in my body, and is willing to take my word about what I need right now.  Most doctors are not like that- most doctors would have insisted on me schleping in for another office visit.

Right now, my son and I are basically in the same boat- wiped out, even upon getting up in the morning, from this cough keeping us up much of the night.  (My poor husband looks a little frazzled, but is trying desparately to keep up a positive front.)  According to the pediatrician, the kid just has that respiratory crud that's going around like wildfire, and his lungs don't actually sound that bad to her, and the cough is improving slightly with each day, so continue to give him albuterol every four hours, or three if need be for the next couple of days, and give him a dose of Benadryl so he'll actually sleep tonight.  The last seems to actually be working- I put him to bed 40 minutes ago, and haven't heard a peep from him for at least 20 minutes.  Tonight, for the first time in days, when I gave him albuterol, the cough actually seemed to be loosening up a bit, too. 

I sure hope we both get the rest we need this weekend and are back in fighting shape by Monday.  I've used ten and a half sick days this school year, and it's only early March!! 

1 comment: