Day 3

I'm trying to come up with a clever entry line, and my mind is performing like the rest of me.  In a word, flat.  My energy level is very low.  Getting up and walking to another room makes me feel like I need to rest.  I'm not in too much pain, just random aches, and my lymph nodes are starting to get sore too.  My armpits wrapping around to the front across my chest and even a bit in my groin (I'm pretty sure there's a big bunch of lymph nodes there too, right?) feel sore and heavy, very tender.  Occasionally my head will hurt, but in an atypical (for me) way.  All of these things are very fluid and changing.  I feel as if I'm on the verge of coming down with a fever.  I think the worst part of it is that I'm too tired to do much at all, but not tired enough to fall asleep.  So I lay down and am just awake.

A lot of thoughts are going through my mind.  This is really boring!  I'm wondering if this is what the next several months of my life will be like.  I'm reminding myself that all of it is good.  My mind even went to childbirth memories and reminded me that my body knows exactly what to do and that I should just lie back and let it do its thing.  Let's continue to let the bodies hit the floor!

While the thought of feeling this way for a long time is rather daunting, I'm encouraged by it.  If I didn't have a load of bacteria in my body for the antibiotics I'm taking to kill, I wouldn't be feeling this way, right?  Well, lets see.... the side effects for amoxicillin, probenecid and azithromycin are:

• headache
• upset stomach
• vomiting
• loss of appetite
• dizziness
• diarrhea
• stomach pain
• mild skin rash 

Yeah, I combined some of them, as some of them are caused by all of them.  But, I can see that this list of symptoms is not the same as my list of symptoms.  So that leads me to believe that they ARE in fact killing the Borrelia bastards that tests have yet to find and my immune system is working hard to clear the debris.

Its so validating!

And yeah, I'm very happy to report that the only thing these meds have done to my digestive system is make it a little bit noisy.  I don't mean I've turned into a fart monster, just that there's lots of gurgling and noises - borborygmy!  Seriously, that's a word.  I learned it in vet tech school in the large animal medicine class in relation to horses.  I know, it has nothing to do with the topic at hand, but when I remember cool stuff like that I want to share it, cuz it makes me feel good!  It reminds me that no, I haven't lost ALL of my knowledge and I'm not dumb, even if I do have trouble remembering what a conversation is about or can't follow and understand a concept.

So anyway..... The only other listed side effect I've noticed is decrease of appetite.  And frankly, its about time!!! *LOL*

What else was I gonna say?  While I was lying down resting I was thinking of all kinds of things to put here.  And can I remember them?  nope.....

Actually, I was thinking about setting up a bit of a nest for me, where I can rest yet have little things to entertain me.  I have to figure out how to knit in bed, and use the computer in bed.  I'm not sure if I have the brain power to read unfortunately.  Cuz if I did, I'd be set!  I'll need water, cuz I've been really thirsty lately.  I'm not much of a tv fan.

But, this little stint is only going to be 5 days long.  Then I'll just be taking the azithromycin until I see the doc again (first week of July), and we'll change things up then.  Maybe the fluish symptoms will back off once I'm off the amox/probenecid?  Amoxicillin is bacteriolytic, killing bacteria by messing up the cell walls and causing them to disintegrate.  Its a pretty quick acting thing.  Azithromycin on the other hand is bacteriostatic, specifically disrupting the bacteria's protein synthesis and stopping its growth, so it takes a longer time to notice its effects.

I think I may have to brush up on my immunology (yeah, I took a class on that too!).  I'd like to know what's actually going on in my lymph nodes and how my body is working with the drugs.