Friday, November 9, 2012

Day 146 - slowly better/updated

Today I spent three separate sessions of 2 or 3 hours out of bed, whereas yesterday I think I only got one hour in. I had big fevers last night (103), but my highest today was 100.5. So, I'm for sure getting better! Also, they added a new antibiotic to my regimen. Unfortunately, I planned badly and am exhausted and this is the whole blog post I have in me at this point. I hope we all have a good feverless night!

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OK, it's Saturday afternoon and I will do the blog post I would have done yesterday if I hadn't run out of steam (unless I run out of steam again). I ended up with more fevers last night (103) so I guess I was prematurely happy. This time I'm not getting rigors and I think at least some of it is because I have learned how not to have rigors. Right from the beginning, I have been able to turn off one limb at a time, but now I seem to be able to keep everything from shaking, but not from tensing. So I have to cycle around R leg, L leg, L arm, R arm, back, neck, shoulders, chest, stomach, R leg, L leg, etc. each time consciously relaxing the muscles in the area. By the time I come back, they are tensed again and we just keep cycling. It's very relaxing and actually kind of fun to see how sneaky my body can be when I'm paying attention to another part. Eventually, I get up to the temperature my brain was aiming for and we're done or more commonly, I fall asleep and don't know what happens then.

I should mention that the whole fever cycle starts with migratory goosebumps which would be kind of fun if I didn't know what was coming. They will sweep up one or both arms and then my back and then maybe one leg, my neck, my head, then maybe an arm, a leg, totally random. Usually I ask for tylenol at this point, because I recognize what is coming, but not always because if I constantly take tylenol, no one will know how high my fevers are. Then we do the non-rigor thing, then I am feverish (and almost always asleep). Even during the day, if I'm not taking tylenol, once I have the moving goosebumps, I get into bed. Then when I wake up, I'm incredibly hot, and I stick my feet out of the covers, then body part by body part lower the covers, then I start sweating furiously. I usually fall asleep again here, then wake up in a wet johnny and wet bed at some point in the future. Sometimes I sleep well enough that it's all evaporated by the time I wake up, sometimes not. It feels good to wash my face in the morning! I usually do about two fevers per day and tylenol the rest away, but without tylenol, I think I would be peaking about every 3-4 hours still. Kind of tiresome, but when I came in, I was having big fevers through the tylenol so this is for sure progress.

The thing that's not going so well is my GI system. The antibiotics are doing their typical havoc wreaking on my guts and it makes me really resistant to eating. Eating has not been my strong suit since my diagnosis so this is really not helpful. I am currently in isolation for "rule out c diff" which I  (and everyone else) really think I do not have, but my co-unit residents are so fragile that there is no way they can not put me in isolation. What are the symptoms of c diff? exactly what I have. I think the results will come back Sunday afternoon.

That's what I think I had to tell you for Friday.

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