Hello all

[Guest guest]

Just wanted to write a note to say hello to everyone and to welcome

all the new members.

I've been batteling a bad case of pyleonephritis for about 3 months

now. I've been on IV antibiotics for the majority of that time.

Well, with my hospital discharge of January 27th, I thought I had

finally licked it. My lab work was all back to normal, for the most

part, anyway. The urinalysis came back clean. I thought, " sweet, I

can finally get my life back " . Well, my doc wanted me to keep the

groshong in until I had my 2 week follow-up appointment with him.

He knows how much trouble I was having with my veins at this point

so we thought this would also help ward off the evil spirits!! Well,

I went home on a Friday. Did ok that weekend. The following week I

had some issues with itching from the adhesive that is on the

groshong dressing, and nasuea. Well, he called in some IV benadryl

and IV phenergan. It helped. I took it as needed. But, I started

to have some major issues that following weekend. I held off going

to the ER. I knew what ws happening, but I thought that if I

ignored it, the problem would go away. Wishful thinking!!

I stuck it out. Things got worse. I had my appointment with him.

Ok, maybe things wouldn't be too bad. My white count was up a

little. He wasn't worried. I was. Then, Tuesday afternoon, his

office calls and tells me that my cultures are positive and they

were waiting for the sensitivity report to come back so they would

know which antibiotic to put me on. I knew something was up because

when he called my temperature was up to 102.

Well, back to the ER for me. Surprisingly, I got there and only

waited about 30 minutes, from the time I registered to the time they

took me back!! I expected to have to wait for at LEAST 5 hours.

That's how it had been everytime I went in during the last 3

months. Well, My cultures had come in by this time. They were

positive with the same damn bug. Only difference being that it is

now RESISTANT to the antibiotic they had been treating it with.

So, back into the hospital, for the 5th time. I am so tired of

this. NOW the doctor says he thinks that the kidney stones that are

enbedded into my kidneys is where the infection keeps coming from.

HELLO!!!! I said that before. They thought that the one stone that

was floating around freely before was the culprit. They took care

of that on my 2nd admission back in January. They insisted that the

other stones just HAD to be sterile because they were contained

behind kidney tissue.

So, I was discharged Friday afternoon and went home on IV

Gentamycin. I am having some major trouble with it. The doc

knows. It makes my head hurt, my chest hurt, my abdomen hurt and it

takes my underlining nausea to a whole new level of upchucking!!

The treatment is worse than the infection, at this point, anyway.

I'm having such a difficult time with the adhesive dressing. My

skin is broke down with rash and blisters. It hurts and itches at

the same time. I can't go without a dressing, an occlusive

dressing, because I can't risk it getting infected. The nausea from

the infection is bad enough, with the antibiotic it is so awful. I

can't even take my RA meds because I can't keep anything down. My

pain levels are through the roof. I waws taking IV benadryl and IV

phenergan both in the hospital and at home. Only thing is, my doc

will not prescribe them for me now. He had trouble with past

patients over dosing themselves. So, I get to suffer. I can't take

this any longer. I have an appointment with my rheumy on Monday.

After that, I'm going to call the surgeon and have him remove this

groshong. I can't take this itching and the pain it is causing. I

know I need the antibiotics, but I am worried about getting

septicemia (infection in the blood). There is drainage coming from

around the groshong insertion site. My blood cultures on this last

admission were clean. So, I at least know I'm good to go there.

If the surgeon won't take it out, I will. I wish he would give me

the benadryl and phenergan. There wouldn't be too big of an issue

then. It helped keep the side effects to a minimum before, but I

didn't realize just HOW much it was doing until I now. I was trying

the benadryl by mouth before this last admission. If I was able to

tolerate it by mouth, then I took it that way istead of the IV

version. I only took it about 6 to 8 hours apart, and was ALWAYS

below the maximum recommended dose. But, right now I can't take

anything by mouth. I try and drink water, when the nausea is low

enough. I just sip on it all day and try not to over do it. But,

as I said before, I can't even get my meds down, and that isn't

helping matters.

My frustration levels are so high right now. I'm also worried about

my job. I have to get back to work soon or I will lose my job.

Lose my job and I have no insurance. No insurance and I can't

afford to treat this problem. So, you can see where this IS going!!

Sorry to rattle on like this. If you have read this far, I thank

you. I think I just needed to get this out an off my chest. I feel

a little better already!! I pray that everyone is well and has a

painfree, or lower than normal, weekend. Take care, and thanks for

listening...........Hugs and prayers to all, Marina