Metronidazole...one of the two antibiotics given for the relief of diverticulitis (the other being ciprofloxacin) . This drug is the one that has been making me sick to my stomach. I just took the last one. Another side effect of this drug is a sour taste in the mouth, accompanied by breath bad enough to knock a buzzard off a manure wagon. There are other side effects I don't care to discuss.
I'm so thankful that it's over.
Showing posts with label diverticulitis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diverticulitis. Show all posts
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Fitness? I'm still trying
I just ran a trial 5k on a treadmill and my time was 27:42. That's my fastest time in over a year. I've been sick with diverticulitis and the antibiotics that I'm taking to fight it, so that's saying a lot about my overall fitness level. My actual race is on the Fourth of July and I will have been off the drugs for five days--my last ones are tomorrow.
As I neared the end of my run today I remembered something about one of the drug's side effects. Cipro is one of the drugs and I remembered that one of the side effects is to more easily pull a muscle. I could feel one going in my right calf, but wanted to complete the trial run, so I pushed on. It's a bit sore, but it will mend, and since I'm going to be tapering off in preparation for the race, I don't anticipate any problems by race day.
I guess the bottom line is that if you're trying to stay fit, push on through temporary pain with lighter workouts and you can pretty much maintain a base line level of fitness. Then, when the opportunities arise--like today for me--see what you can do. You may surprise yourself.
As I neared the end of my run today I remembered something about one of the drug's side effects. Cipro is one of the drugs and I remembered that one of the side effects is to more easily pull a muscle. I could feel one going in my right calf, but wanted to complete the trial run, so I pushed on. It's a bit sore, but it will mend, and since I'm going to be tapering off in preparation for the race, I don't anticipate any problems by race day.
I guess the bottom line is that if you're trying to stay fit, push on through temporary pain with lighter workouts and you can pretty much maintain a base line level of fitness. Then, when the opportunities arise--like today for me--see what you can do. You may surprise yourself.
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Blasts from the past
I just had my second bout of diverticulitis, my first coming just a little over a month and a half ago. I'm not thrilled about being back on antibiotics. They make me sick. On the other hand, I'm not to keen on having to have part of my colon removed if it abscesses and walls off. I'd rather take the antibiotics and hope and pray that they work this time. Sometimes, these blasts from the past aren't good. I hope this is my last blast of diverticulitis ever.
That being said, the good Lord watches over us and I'm confident that I will mend and mend well. There is just too much to do to be under the weather for long. Besides, the drugs are doing their stuff and other than a little queasiness now and then, I'm feeling good and was able to do a lot of yard clean up yesterday, including discovering that my one blackberry plant I had thought was dead, had sent up new shoots--so I watered it, cleared away the Virginia Creeper that invades from over the fence and felt good about the whole darn thing.
That being said, the good Lord watches over us and I'm confident that I will mend and mend well. There is just too much to do to be under the weather for long. Besides, the drugs are doing their stuff and other than a little queasiness now and then, I'm feeling good and was able to do a lot of yard clean up yesterday, including discovering that my one blackberry plant I had thought was dead, had sent up new shoots--so I watered it, cleared away the Virginia Creeper that invades from over the fence and felt good about the whole darn thing.
Monday, May 04, 2015
Titanic day 3?
On Saturday, I was expecting to come home from work, take a nap, change into work clothes, and go out and with a wheelbarrow and shovel, fill up my four raised beds with the soil that had been deposited on my driveway. Instead, Ann told me that she was worried and having a hard time breathing. We decided to go to Instacare to have her checked out.
The physician on staff at Instacare had xrays done and Ann had pneumonia. He sent us to the emergency room. It was reminiscent of the time seven years ago when she caught pneumonia the first time. That time, she'd been sick (diagnosed as bronchitis), her doctor had given her some antibiotics and said, "if you're not better in a week come back in". The week was on Friday and she wasn't better, but we had decided to wait until Monday. It was nearly a fatal mistake. On that Monday back in '08, I knew she was bad and I got her right in to Dr. Olsen. He hooked up an oxygen monitor and when he saw the readings, he got white as a sheet. "At this point," he'd said, "we usually call the paramedics."
She had been rushed to the hospital. Her lungs, were filled with pneumonia to the point where there were only a couple of small slits that were pneumonia-free. She ended up being in the ICU for eight days, went into cardiac arrest a couple of times, had to have her lungs physically scraped out (fully awake, no less), and finally kicked it and left the hospital eleven days later.
Her recovery at home was with a lot of oxygen tanks being dragged around, and it was at the end of this recovery that she contracted rheumatoid arthritis, a disease in which the treatments cause the body's immune system to be severely compromised.
Fast forward to now. We took her in on Saturday night. The lungs weren't nearly as saturated with pneumonia as they'd been seven years previous. But her immune system isn't strong now either. She's currently on seven liters of oxygen and they won't let her come home until she's down to around two.
Saturday night I had told her that I was having some trouble of my own--a bladder infection, I thought. I was having the same symptoms that I'd had a couple of weeks ago when I had self-diagnosed myself as having kidney stones. This time heeding advice, I wanted to get it checked out. On Sunday, I spent the first few hours with Ann, then at two o'clock, I drove to the nearest Instacare to have my supposed bladder infection diagnosed. The doctor said after checking me out that I didn't have a bladder infection and that it was either diverticulitis or appendicitis and that I'd need to go to the ER to get it checked out.
After six hours and a CT Scan, I was diagnosed with diverticulitis and given prescriptions for antibiotics and pain killers. I was relieved to finally be able to go up to Ann's room and see how she was doing.
Meanwhile, Ann had been nine floors above worrying about me. The nurse there tapped into my vital information on the computer. I guess she could get current stats from the monitors I was hooked to below. "Your husband has a heart rate of 52," she said to Ann. "He's one healthy dude."
I felt good about that, when Ann told me, but that's insignificant at the moment. At the moment, all I want is her well and home.
The physician on staff at Instacare had xrays done and Ann had pneumonia. He sent us to the emergency room. It was reminiscent of the time seven years ago when she caught pneumonia the first time. That time, she'd been sick (diagnosed as bronchitis), her doctor had given her some antibiotics and said, "if you're not better in a week come back in". The week was on Friday and she wasn't better, but we had decided to wait until Monday. It was nearly a fatal mistake. On that Monday back in '08, I knew she was bad and I got her right in to Dr. Olsen. He hooked up an oxygen monitor and when he saw the readings, he got white as a sheet. "At this point," he'd said, "we usually call the paramedics."
She had been rushed to the hospital. Her lungs, were filled with pneumonia to the point where there were only a couple of small slits that were pneumonia-free. She ended up being in the ICU for eight days, went into cardiac arrest a couple of times, had to have her lungs physically scraped out (fully awake, no less), and finally kicked it and left the hospital eleven days later.
Her recovery at home was with a lot of oxygen tanks being dragged around, and it was at the end of this recovery that she contracted rheumatoid arthritis, a disease in which the treatments cause the body's immune system to be severely compromised.
Fast forward to now. We took her in on Saturday night. The lungs weren't nearly as saturated with pneumonia as they'd been seven years previous. But her immune system isn't strong now either. She's currently on seven liters of oxygen and they won't let her come home until she's down to around two.
Saturday night I had told her that I was having some trouble of my own--a bladder infection, I thought. I was having the same symptoms that I'd had a couple of weeks ago when I had self-diagnosed myself as having kidney stones. This time heeding advice, I wanted to get it checked out. On Sunday, I spent the first few hours with Ann, then at two o'clock, I drove to the nearest Instacare to have my supposed bladder infection diagnosed. The doctor said after checking me out that I didn't have a bladder infection and that it was either diverticulitis or appendicitis and that I'd need to go to the ER to get it checked out.
After six hours and a CT Scan, I was diagnosed with diverticulitis and given prescriptions for antibiotics and pain killers. I was relieved to finally be able to go up to Ann's room and see how she was doing.
Meanwhile, Ann had been nine floors above worrying about me. The nurse there tapped into my vital information on the computer. I guess she could get current stats from the monitors I was hooked to below. "Your husband has a heart rate of 52," she said to Ann. "He's one healthy dude."
I felt good about that, when Ann told me, but that's insignificant at the moment. At the moment, all I want is her well and home.
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