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ProfessorTomoe

Changing Medications (Level of Trust Required)

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1 hour ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Today (Friday Jan. 24) is going to be fun (sarcasm). I've got physical therapy (ouch) scheduled for an hour at 2pm in Rockwall (think far east D/FW area), followed by an MRI at 5:15pm in Plano (think far north D/FW area), with 2:15 hours to get from one to another during the start of Friday rush hour. I think we may just go straight from Rockwall to Plano, have an early dinner at Chuy's, and then go in for the MRI. That's the only way I see things working.

Really hoping the MRI results show no evidence of bone infection. I don't want to lose another toe.

Good luck.  It could be worse, you could be doing that trip during the weekend of the OU-Texas game.  I did that as part of a business trip.  Worse traffic I've been in ever.

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Here we go again.

The MRI on my right #2 toe came back showing early onset of osteomyelitis (bone infection). Since it's this early, I'm guessing, the doctor doesn't want to go straight to amputation. He wants to put me on intravenous antibiotics again.

THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL THAT I'M LETTING THIS INTERFERE WITH MY CRUISE!

 

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Things are continuing to get worse. I had to go to my primary care physician today for treatment of a sinus infection. You read that right - despite the fact that I've been on antibiotics (Augmentin) for almost 20 days (and another antibiotic for 14 days prior to that), I have developed a fresh sinus infection. My doctor blamed it on some "drug resistant bugs going around." He put me on - wait for it - a *third* antibiotic (doxycycline) and on a prescription nasal spray (azelastine). I hope it does something.

In other news, I got a call from an infectious disease doctor, the one assigned to take care of the IV antibiotics for my toe. I have an appointment with her on Monday (Feb 3rd) in the afternoon. She's going to love the mix of drugs that I'm already on.

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While not in Professor Tomoe level, when I woke up this morning, I had pain in both knees, not just the left.  That worries me some what.  After moving around a bit the both returned to normal, and sitting has only made the left painful, so it might not be a sign of the arthritis returning to the right, but something I need to keep in mind if it comes back.

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After two days of a wild goose chase, I finally found a place that would do the chest X-ray that my infectious disease specialist ordered. You see, I still haven't shaken the sinus infection from last week, and now it's trying to crawl down into my chest. I'm on both Augmentin and doxycycline for it (as well as for other things - more on that later). The specialist drew blood, and while she was at it she examined toe #2 on my right foot. She took a culture and sent it off for testing to see if it's still Enterococcus or not that's causing my osteomyelitis.

Since I'm going on the NotCon at Sea cruise on the 17th, I can't do IV antibiotics for my osteomyelitis (bone infection), so she's got me on a 6-week course of both Augmentin and doxycycline (that's in addition to the 20 days of Augmentin I've already been on). Of course, the pharmacy would only fill 30 days of this. Stupid insurance limits.

I hope this made sense. My nighttime pills are starting to kick in.

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I've had to dig into my supply of rizatriptan in an attempt to knock out a migraine. I was hoping a dose of Tylenol would take care of it, but alas, that was not to be. Now, on the day before we leave for Galveston in preparation for our cruise, I've come down with a massive migraine.

Megacrap.

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Saw the knee replacement surgeon on Monday. He has - praise all that is holy - agreed to replace my left knee. However, I must overcome the osteomyelitis (bone infection) in toe number two of my right foot first.

Sadly, the oral antibiotics are having little effect on the osteomyelitis. Mrs. Prof says my toe is starting to look a bit worse. On top (or on the bottom) of that, there is now a large black spot in the middle of the callus on the bottom of my right foot. This does not bode well, since my last case of osteomyelitis was preceded by a black spot on the tip of toe number two.

Fortunately, I have an appointment scheduled with my foot doctor this coming Monday. We will discuss possibilities and probabilities at that time. Will I have amputation surgery? Will I have surgery to remove the core of the callus? These will be decided then.

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Saw the foot doctor today. One issue was easily resolved - the black spots on the bottom of my foot were dried blood from some unknown source. Easily scraped off. No infection.

The other issue ... not so easily resolved. My second toe continues to be a source of discomfort and infection. The antibiotics are still not working like they're supposed to be working. Intravenous antibiotics would not be worth the hell that they put me through - I'll be damned if I have to go back to a nursing home again.

So, we amputate. Partial amputation of toe number two of my right foot. This will get rid of the infected bone, and it will get me one step closer to a knee replacement. Two thumbs up.

Amputation day is about two weeks from now. Bad timing, but you do it when the doctor can do it.

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I've been feeling like crap for the last few days.  Nothing major, just being out of bed for more than a few hours takes a lot out of me.  I'm going to try to stay out of bed for a while today and do the stuff I would normally due in bed (watch videos, read game PDF, surf the web) at my workstation instead of my ChromeBook and see if I can break this.  If I still feel like I shouldn't be up around noon, I'll go back to bed.

 

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10 minutes ago, mlooney said:

I've been feeling like crap for the last few days.  Nothing major, just being out of bed for more than a few hours takes a lot out of me.  I'm going to try to stay out of bed for a while today and do the stuff I would normally due in bed (watch videos, read game PDF, surf the web) at my workstation instead of my ChromeBook and see if I can break this.  If I still feel like I shouldn't be up around noon, I'll go back to bed.

Feel better soon. Let us know if we can lighten the load a bit with something from an Amazon wish list or something.

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5 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

Feel better soon. Let us know if we can lighten the load a bit with something from an Amazon wish list or something.

No, I don't need any thing from Amazon, I just feel like crud.  I suspect that I'll get a drug change next time I see my shrink.  I could be wrong, of course, but I suspect that my body had gotten use to my current dosage of brain drugs and this is a down cycle of my bipolar.  I'm still on fairly low dosage of Lamictal (lamotrigine) so I suspect that will go from 150mg to 200 or even 300 mg.  Find out at the end of the month, or sooner if I don't snap out of this funk.

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Just now, mlooney said:

No, I don't need any thing from Amazon, I just feel like crud.  I suspect that I'll get a drug change next time I see my shrink.  I could be wrong, of course, but I suspect that my body had gotten use to my current dosage of brain drugs and this is a down cycle of my bipolar.  I'm still on fairly low dosage of Lamictal (lamotrigine) so I suspect that will go from 150mg to 200 or even 300 mg.  Find out at the end of the month, or sooner if I don't snap out of this funk.

Thank you for keeping us updated. I hope everything goes okay.

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The good news: I've lost weight to bring me just below 300 lbs. again.

The bad news: I've been eating Zofran anti-nausea medication like it's candy.

I suspect I'm getting sick from prolonged exposure to the doxycycline antibiotic. I'm on two antibiotics (Augmentin being the other one), but only the doxycycline has ever given me trouble in the past. I'm going to call my infectious disease specialist on Monday and basically beg to be let off of the stuff. I can't stand it any more.

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First things first: the infectious disease specialist let me off the doxycycline. Hooray. I'm feeling slightly better day by day.

Now, for today's events.

The toe amputation went rather well. No major issues, just a tiny bit of post-op nausea (phenergan and Zofran dealt with this) and some post-op amputation wound pain (which fentanyl took care of). There was a brief moment's scare when the nurse couldn't find my glasses, but they were eventually located and the crisis was averted.

The reason the nurse took care of finding my glasses and not my wife is that my wife was not allowed into the hospital with me. You see, we were met at the entrance of the hospital Thursday morning by masked and gloved COVID-19 disease screeners. They cleared me, but they hung my wife on the "do you have a cough?" question. She's been coughing for weeks due to ridiculous pollen levels causing allergy trouble. They said she'd have to wear a mask in the hospital, and for that reason she'd be denied entry past the screening point. I wound up going through the entire operation by myself, all the way through to dismissal.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Prof. did a bit of driving around after giving hospital staff her phone number. She managed to find a grocery store just opening and bought some bread!!! for a change - even managing to find our favorite brand. Another trip for some home repair supplies ate up more time. She finished that and got a phone call from the doctor immediately after checking out, with word of how the surgery went. Thankfully, she returned to the hospital to retrieve me. :D

Since returning, I've spent the day fighting off the anesthesia and trying to stay ahead of the amputation pain with my oxycodone. I think I've finally managed to catch up on both counts. We shall see how things go tomorrow.

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I have a dry cough, sniffles and what I think is a low grade fever.  Given what time of year it is, I strongly suspect that I have my normal oak pollen allergies, but in a case of "rather safe than sorry" I've canceled my weekly D&D game this Sunday.  There have been no cases of CV-19 in my county as yet and I've been in isolation for the last week, so I strongly think this isn't any thing to worry about but like I said, better safe than sorry.

 

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58 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

Isn't it great when the trees are trying to mate with your sinuses?

No, it's not.  I don't have many allergies, but oaks can die in a fire this time of year.

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I'm on Xyzal and hydroxyzine 2x a day each for my allergies. I was taking allergy shots for about a decade, with scant improvement. At one point, I was getting 4 shots - 2 shots in each arm - twice a week. That's 8 shots a week, and that went on for years.

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3 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

I'm on Xyzal and hydroxyzine 2x a day each for my allergies. I was taking allergy shots for about a decade, with scant improvement. At one point, I was getting 4 shots - 2 shots in each arm - twice a week. That's 8 shots a week, and that went on for years.

Yuck,  I'm lucky I only have one major allergy, oak pollen, that I can't avoid.  I'm also allergic to raw tomato skins and seeds, which I can more or less avoid by being careful when I order stuff.

Of course when the oaks start up, I end up taking close to the maximum amount of antihistamines just so I can breath.  

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*singing to the tune of MGM's The Wizard of Oz's "We Welcome You to the Neighborhood"*

We offer you antihistamines

Anti-his! Anti-his! Anti-histamines!

Fa-la-la la-la la-la

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One infection leaves, and another is discovered. Sigh.

If you'll recall, I had a sliver of metal get into the bottom of my right foot last summer and cause a very nasty infection. The sliver was removed and the infection went away, but callouses kept coming back along with inflamed areas of tissue in the area. An MRI found an "opportunistic" situation developing over and over in the area. It caused pain, not just in the callous spot, but deeper in my foot.

My podiatrist told me he would address the situation while he had me on the surgical table last Thursday. Apparently, he "dug out the core," as he'd been saying he would, and took a culture of what the subsequent report described as a "deep abscess."

The report's findings? "Rare Pseudomonas aeruginosa," verbatim from the report.

You can find more about pseudomonas aeruginosa from the Centers for Disease Control's website at this link. Apparently, it becomes drug-resistant quite easily. I know for a fact that it doesn't react to Augmentin or doxycycline, or I would be rid of it by now. What the hell am I going to do? I guess I'll find out at my post-op follow-up with the podiatrist.

This is almost as scary as having a dose of COVID-19!

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From what I've heard - not a medical professional - the thing to do with drug-resistant bugs is to hit them with several different antibiotics (that they aren't known to be resistant to) at the same time.

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