I'M ALIVE ...

Hi Friends!

It's been a rough week, but I think I'm starting to get a bit better. It started out with a sinus infection, which was being treated with Levaquin -- my usual antibiotic of choice. At first, I seemed to get better -- at least in the sinus department. But by the end of the week and my course of antibiotics -- I couldn't breathe and it felt like someone was sitting on my chest. Of course, Bill kept telling me to go to the doctor, and I kept saying -- "I'm fine -- I'm already on antibiotics..."

So, by Thursday morning -- I was bad enough that I decided to go to Urgent Care. When I got there, Dr. Hasan (our family doctor) really freaked out. She immediately x-rayed me and it turned out, I had pneumonia and bronchitis. She said that for most people, the Levaquin would have worked -- but at this point, I've probably built up resistance to it as I've used it so many times in the past few years for UTI's and sinus infections. So, looks like it's -- R.I.P. Levaquin. I now have a long list of antibiotics I'm resistant to.

So, they gave me 3 shots in the bootie -- lots of steroids and antibiotics. I also got a breathing treatment at Urgent Care, as well as a nebulizer and breathing treatments to do at home. So, I am currently doing the nebulizer 3 times daily, as well as taking a more powerful antibiotic (can you say, diarrhea!) and steroids (cue, the hyperness!). Annie came to Urgent Care. Her Dad dropped her off and she was able to drive me to the pharmacy and then home, because after all of that -- I wasn't feeling any better. They have to make you worse before you get better -- it sometimes seems.

I was told to call Dr. Cohen, my rheumatologist to see if Dr. Hasan's treatment plan was OK. He immediately freaked out as well, and told me that I'm "severely immune compromised!" So, if I get any worse, he wants me to go to Los Robles ER where they can treat me with IV antibiotics. He wasn't sure the shots and oral meds would be powerful enough. I had to laugh because when I told him that I wasn't even running a temperature, he said, "Of course you're not... we've completely shut down your immune system!" I hadn't even considered that! Anyway, I seem to have made it through the worst of it. So, I think I'll be OK until I have an appointment with him on Tuesday!

Bill had to go back to Boy Scout camp on Thursday, so Annie came over to stay with me. Basically, she was on ER watch. And she needed to protect me from myself, because they again have me so hyped up on steroids! Shirlene took the boys on Thursday and Friday night, so that I could have some peace and quiet with just Molly and Annie. We did a lot of girl's movies. And Brandon's been here each day this week, so he keeps the boys pretty busy.

Bill and Cameron are due back anytime now. I let Annie take a few hours off to go out for lunch and a movie with a friend. I felt bad that I sucked her into my sickness vortex for the past 48 hours. But she is such a good friend!

So, the plan for this week is to rest and recover. Obviously, they had to cancel my chemo (which was supposed to happen on Friday) due to the illnesses. If my chest X-ray comes back clear after 7-10 day, I will do chemo on July 20th. Meantime, our church family will be doing meals for us for the next week. And I need to stay in my bubble until Dr. Cohen checks my blood count on Tuesday. Then we'll see what's next!

I hope this makes sense. I'll try to keep you updated. Please pray that I get better, not worse. I don't want to keep cancelling chemo -- it's just delaying the inevitable!

Much Love,
Michele