Cycling

It seems like I've been on a cycle of being sick and not being sick since about October of last year....it's getting kind of annoying. And I Hope this is the last time I'm sick for a good long while.

I did 2 weeks of home IV antibiotics starting Feb 23rd...so ended these about 3 weeks ago. I also did steroids at that time, as well as went on supplemental oxygen at night and during the day if needed. After I finished the 2 weeks of abx, I did feel somewhat better for about 2 weeks. Then last week I started getting sick again....but then had 2 days where i felt pretty good (guess it was the "Calm before the storm"). I already had a follow up clinic appointment schedule for today (Wed); However, Monday I felt a whole lot worse, and my oxygen sats had dropped to 82% while walking to my car at school. They had been around 88-89%, although there was an 85% one day last week. I also had a low grade fever Monday as well, and a productive cough decided to present itself along with everything else. I called my coordinator and I started on Cipro Monday evening; We agreed that I would be ok to wait to be seen until clinic today, after talking with my coordinator again yesterday (Tues);

So the verdict from clinic today was: still nothing major showing on my xray; PFT's about the same as last visit, which wasn't good. I had the choice of coming in the hospital or doing home IVs again; so I chose the home IV route, since I'm still doing clinicals for nursing school. So I'm doing Ceftaz for 2 weeks in addition to oral Cipro; continue the oxygen; and another steroid taper.

We also talked about doing a bronch to check for rejection; he said it was probably not rejection, but that you never know so it's probably a good idea. I haven't had a bronch in about 1.5 years. We are going to schedule the bronch, for hopefully April 11th-a week from next Monday. I only let one particular doctor do my bronchs; I have a test next Monday and other assignments, etc., so he was fine with waiting til the following week.

This really takes an emotional toll on me as well as physical. Round 4 of IV antibiotics since October....definitely not like me (or it's never been this close together); hoping this does the trick or we figure something else out that clears this stuff up for good. It's really hard going to class when you can't breathe very well. But i'm determined to go and not miss class; I'm supposed to take it easy, per doc and coordinator orders.....just trying to decide how and what area I'm going to do that in????

I will definitely update after the bronch or when i know results from it or if anything happens before then; School is crazy and we are, thankfully, nearing the end of the semester. One more exam in each class in addition to ATI exam (which mocks our licensure exam); 1 more pharmacology assignment; 3 more Psych clinicals; we are required to attend an open public AA meeting for Nursing Psych class; so i did just that tonight. It was very interesting. I have several papers to write for that class too!! Crazy!!!

Good night...clinicals tomorrow, so need some rest. Looking forward to the weekend, and most of all, hopefully feeling better, especially more energy and higher oxygen levels.