the good, the bad and the ugly

Yesterday I went to see the Infectious disease doc and the to follow up with a work comp doc. The news was mixed.

The good- The PICC line comes out tomorrow morning after a 10 day run on the Vancomycyn yes I am very happy about that this leads to the ugly truth but hang on a moment for that I will get there too. So that is a good thing in my book.

The bad- More antibiotics - What you say? yes I need to continue treatment another mixed bag of drugs for another 10 days this time a combination of two good antibiotics - but I can take them orally. but I need to remain off the leg still so feet elevated as much as I can and try to fight this off and get well. So I am going to try visualizing fighting white knight in my leg ( white good cells) and they will win and next week I hope to be fit for work !! it still a wait and see as of yesterday.

The ugly- the truth is I can't wait for the PICC line to come out so I can shower on a daily basis LOL with the way it is stuck in my arm a shower was less than desirable or manageable more than a couple of times. my routine was highly disturbed. Yes I will be resuming my daily ( or most daily) habit commencing tomorrow afternoon.

more Avista

what a nice facility to have to be at if you need care! all the nurse staff have been so nice to me here even the hard job of being here overnight. two nights now. Carole,Crystal, Catelyn, Maria,Jodi,Jackie,Emilly, Tiffany and Dr.Fanestil his aide Donna and I am sure i have missed someone-Deb in the ER and Trish too. I am on dose number 7 of iv antibiotics, i am getting motrin 600's for pain as needed... it does seem to help for a while but today the pain is more intense than it had been yesterday. i have elevated my legs even more with pillows but still i am a bit perplexed by the intensity of this thing in my legs

Knees- Black and blue

I had a mishaps on Wed - last week - I will post some photos of the actual ( ugly knee) I went to google images of black and blue knee and the funny thing is sox were the most prevalent return on my search LOL

Well I did not have any socks on - and I fell down - I was at work and it was later in the day. I tripped going into Bldg 500 ( old fitzsimmons) on a wipe your feet rubber and cloth type mat ... there were actually quite a few people who saw me do it and one lady even commented that I was " not the first one today" to have fallen!!! WTF why didn't some one do something sooner if that was the case. . . I had a big case of embarrassment and a kind man wanted to help me up ... I wanted nothing more than to be invisible. but I did get up at the time, went on my way took care of my end of day business there and rode home on the bus ( all the while i could feel the pressure and increased heat and size of my knee)

I went to work the next day- Thursday but did report this incident as work comp /safety related. so they sent me off to the Doctors where they proceeded to take a series of x-rays to be sure I had not broken anything. well I had not ( thanks God - what a blessing) My fat knees saved me again. I think I was so shocked to have fallen i didn't do anything to break my fall there by saving me from anything broken.

The bad news it there is severe arthritis on the knee itself---- just like the right now the left has been told it should be hurting ----- (click to see entry about other fall on knees) ----on those days when the weather turns colder.... the swelling has gone down some ( but still not done) I have pins and needles and burning on my leg!! it sucks and it hurts but I am still in the land of the living getting up and going best I can. will keep you posted to the progress hahaha

Glucosamine and Chondroitin

how are those for some words for you?? expensive stuff, made from shellfish and I don't know what, meant to help with joints ( not the smoking kind) like knees.... Why you may ask am I talking about this?? Well this photo was taken moments before I fell on my knees, really landing on the right one full on. It got pretty swollen, though the nurse on duty gave me great care and they brought me ice and we elevated and rested for the next two days they drove me most places so I didn't have to hike, but in the end I had a big big purple bruise, so I gave in and went to my Kaiser Doc.... well he took and x-ray..... and I really hadn't messed up anything to badly.

he offered to give me some pain meds, but I declined and decided to take my advil and get on with moving and staying active ( scince I had already been on it for a week at that point).

So to make this long story even longer, a few days went by and I get an e-mail. well low and behold I have arthitis in my knee read by the x-ray doctor , I have had it for a while. SO... one of the recomendations was the above combination of dietary suppliments not a cheap fix but if it works great, i can least try it and see if I get a little relief. :)