Bad things happen in three’s, right?

So I have some updates from yesterday…

When I got to the hospital, they first took some blood to grow cultures to see if they can nail down what the specific infection is. More than likely it is strep or staph.

Next, they sent in an IV specialist to put in a line to receive the antibiotics. After several very painful pokes, she could not get a line. Another specialist came in, tried her hand at it, but was also unsuccessful. I’d like to think I’m a pro at all of this now, but I was in bawling as it was so painful and we came out with no IV stick.

The infectious disease specialist, Dr. Hengel, came to visit with me next. He was awesome. We spoke about all my options. He said my veins were shot due to the chemo and blood clots, so we were unable to get a stick. All of my IVs for my past surgeries had been done with a butterfly needle in my hand and they couldn’t even get that to work yesterday. He also considered doing a PICC line. This would be inserted into a vein and run to the chest area – basically a central catheter line and they use an ultrasound to assist the procedure. However, due to my history of blood clots from the port, he decided not to go this route. He also considered a line in my jugular, but opted against that thankfully. Fortunately, for me, he went with the least painful option, oral antibiotics. The drug is called Zyvox. He said the drug was ridiculously expensive (from internet research, it is around $100 per pill) and has some serious side effects – it could cause me to be anemic or develop high blood pressure. I could be on this drug for a month (2 pills a day). I also have to be careful about certain foods/supplements, as the medicine could have adverse reactions.

I went to bed at 8:30 p.m. last night, but only slept for an hour. The nurse came in at 9:30 p.m. and we discovered I had a fever of 102 degrees. She gave me Tylenol, but from then on, I didn’t sleep much as all I did was sweat trying to break the fever.

I still have no idea how long they will keep me in the hospital. You would think since I’m taking the oral antibiotics, they would release me, but I know they need to grow out the blood cultures to make sure they know what specific infection they are fighting and to also make sure I don’t develop any of the side effects from the drug. The redness and heat of the left breast area has still not lessened any, so I’m still concerned.

Since the old adage says “bad things happen in three’s,” I’m praying that all my complications are behind me now!

Love to you all!
Marcy

P.S. - the picture is an Angora Bunny, so happy belated Easter!